Born of the Desire
by Portugas D. Ace
Summary: The sixteen candidates of the P.M. Project had suddenly gone missing, and the world before them turned into chaos trying to find them. When they awaken inside a mysterious facility, a wicked voice calls out to them. They must now adjust and survive the odds as each of them are turned against one another in a brutal killing game that none of them expect to survive. Danganronpa AU
1. ARRIVAL

**.**

 **BORN OF THE DESIRE**

 **ARRIVAL**

* * *

 _?, 21XX_

 _Ugh..._ The voice groaned to itself as a body began to pull itself up. Eyes slowly opened and began to wander around the seemingly endless void, darkness still shrouding the entire picture before it. The sound of movement rustling among the dark caught its ears, pain shooting through its body as it tried to sit upwards, realizing slowly that they seemed to be stuck in stasis almost. _No, not stasis._ As thought began to come back to him, his mind began to work and his hands reached around the enclosed space, realizing quickly that he was trapped in some kind of box.

He pushed forward and heard metal clunking together, brief shimmers of light escaping into the voided space. Taking a deep breath, he pushed forward with more might, a bit of wind escaping his mouth, his body breaking free from the prison and into a blinding light that caught him off guard, his eyes now shrouded by his hands as he fell to the ground. Dazed now, he shook his head to try and clear his mind once more, blinking several times over before finally being able to understand his surroundings.

His eyes darted around the room, noticing the several rows of high school desks lined along the floor, each of them bouncing bits of the light above off their pristine tops, glistening almost with such a radiant shine. He pulled himself up once more and turned around, noticing now his previous prison was nothing more than..

 _Lockers?_ His eyes blinked over several times, his mouth frowning as he pressed his hands against the cold metal. Sure enough, they were authentic lockers, a slight bit of relief leaving his mouth as if he was worried they would turn into another illusion. His eyes moved to the center of the wall the lockers rested against, now seeing a long, black chalkboard running from wall to wall. Several characters were written on it, none of them concerning him at that moment. Confusion now began to circle his thoughts as he realized he was in what appeared to be a classroom.

 _No, not just that. Up there, the corners of the room!_ His eyes now rested on a large blank screen that hung off of a mount, a small grey camera positioned next to it. As he slowly walked around towards it, he noticed a blinking red light, ever so small, on the corner of the camera, confirming his suspicions. He glanced around the room, noting a camera on each corner, but only one screen, that one positioned near the front of the room. His hand moved to his chin and he began to stroke it along the hairs, his elbow resting on his other arm. _I am being recorded, that much I'm sure of. But why?_

He finally noticed the cold, metal band wrapped around his left wrist, his other hands moving away from his face towards it. He felt it slowly, noticing the grooves and the glass face on the top of it, blank, a black void just peering back at him. He curiously blinked at it, his hand attempting to move it or find a way to remove it, to no avail. He sighed, leaving it be now as his eyes wandered around the room once more, almost wondering now if he was alone or...

Almost on cue, a loud thunk was heard outside, and his mind was put into full alert. He dashed across the room swiftly, his body twisting and turning along the desks ever quietly. He pressed his back against the wall and leaned his head slightly towards the door, his ears honing in to any sound that they might pick up-

"G-Get **back**!"

The voice was of a girl, one that was in danger. Without hesitating any further, he swung the door open and threw himself out, now witnessing the scene before him..

Her hands darted back and forth, appearing almost as if her whole body were dancing. In them was a magnificent blade, swinging ahead at this large burly beast. As she turned and hopped, her blue hair swayed furiously along with her movements, his eyes resting of them for only a moment. She turned her head towards him, her face scowling as she called out to him.

"Watch out!"

Before he realized it, fire came spewing at both of them now, his body having narrowly avoiding it thankfully. The girl had her arm wrapped around him, having pulled him away last second before those flames reached him. She pushed him back as she stood back up, her blade still drawn, her body sideways, ready to continue this duel. The beast stepped forward now, its enormous body nearly shaking the hallway with each step. Its face was obscured by the shadows, but he could still spot red firey hair above it, sitting ahead of several rows of spikes adjourned onto a massive green shell. Its mouth now broke open, a mighty roar following afterwards, deafening to hear.

"What the **HELL** did you do to me? Where the **HELL** am I?!" The beast shouted, more flames spewing out from its jaw wildly. "Put that damn toothpick down and **ANSWER ME**!"

The girl swung her body around the flames that came billowing towards her, positioning her blade right beneath the beasts jaw. In almost an instant, she flung her arm forward, aiming at its throat, the blade piercing only but the wind as the beast quickly darted backwards, its speed catching both of them off guard. The beast dug its massive claw into the ground to slow its movement, still bearing its fangs at the girl. Its nostrils flared as smoke puffed out, its eyes focused on the girl, almost draconic in presence. However, before the two of them clashed once more, a voice shot out as a memory came back to it.

"W-Wait! Bowser, right?!" He shouted, both the girl and the beast looking towards him now. He moved towards the both of them, his eyes watching cautiously both the beast and the girl's blade. "Bowser, of the Mushroom Kingdom? I recognize that hair and that shell- you've got to be the one!"

The beast drew back his claw and huffed in deeply, standing up right now. He snorted, moving his hand against his massive jaw, wiping away a small bit of blood from a cut that must've come from moments ago. "That's me alright." The voice was deep and mighty, every word nearly catching the two of them off guard. "Who are you supposed to be, furry?"

"Fox. Of Corneria." He watched as both of them now turned and faced him, their faces now almost in shock as their mouths were agape, eyes wide open. Fox blinked his eyes, confused at their reaction.

* * *

 _April 21st, 21XX_

"It's been nearly one month now since the disappearance of the P.M. Prospects," the man announced, his hands folded over one another, gripping tightly. His forehead glistened with sweat, a mixture of the hot lights beaming on his face as well as the severity of the situation before him. The long white desk in front of him remained empty, all aside from his hands planted firmly on it and a microphone a few inches away from them.

"Officials state that they're still working on this case day in and day out," he continued, his words coming out cleaner than expected from the look upon his face, "and that they are following a lead that shows great promise." The man bit the bottom of his lip, almost as if something was tugging at him as that last part escaped his mouth. "Again, if anyone has any possible information on the missing individuals, please come to..."

The rest of the crew stood in silence listening as he now began to list off names, the same names he's had to repeat for the last month now. He licked his lips and batted his brows as he sighed deeply, pulling out a clipboard of these names and titles attached to them. He lifted the first page and began his sermon for the hundredth time now:

"Princess Peach Toadstool, heir to the Mushroom Kingdom. Last seen accompanied by her adviser Toadsworth on their way to the Shooting Star Summit. She was seen wearing her royal pink dress, her crown as well as her parasol. Toadsworth was seen carrying a knapsack, the contents unknown. If you have any information of his whereabouts, authorities are searching for him as well." He licked the tip of his thumb, flipping to the next page. He continued reading off name after name, each followed by their last seen location as well as whoever had accompanied them. His voice was almost dry now, the lack of worry beginning to breach through the rest of his face.

The man reached the final page, lifting the others up and away as he now read off the last few sentences. "Fox McCloud, pilot of the Cornerian military. Last whereabouts are unknown. Last seen person unknown. Fox McCloud has been missing for three months prior to the other kidnappings. If you have any information of his whereabouts, please inform authorities immediately..."

As the report concluded, the man bowed his head and remained at the desk, the rest of the crew pulling the equipment away and cleaning up the scene. His hands now laid on top on the clipboard, his fingers woven among one another. He pressed his thumbs against his beaten forehead, footsteps echoing the room, bouncing from wall to wall. Chatter rustled around the room, gossip and rumors and other misinformation filling each mouth. The stress was heavy on them all, as time continued to move along despite their efforts.

* * *

 _?, 21XX_

"So you're saying three months have passed?" Fox asked, his voice full of disbelief as he sat across from Lucina, the blue-haired girl. The classroom's walls contained the three of them, Bowser opting to stand at the back of the room.

"That's right," Lucina replied. Her arms were crossed along the blue tunic on her chest, both sleeves rolled up slightly to her elbows, almost as if they were torn near the wrists. On her left wrist was the same metal band Fox had on his own arm. Her sword remained sheathed along her waist, the tip nearly reaching her tall, indigo boots. "When I was announced as the last member, you had already gone missing and the government was working to find you."

"Set the whole buncha us back honestly," Bowser chimed in, snorting once more. "Doin' us no favor besides delaying this project. Which, now that I'm gettin' to it, let me ask you both." Fox and Lucina cocked an eyebrow, curious. "What the hell was the point of this project anyways? Far as I know, they picked us outta the rest and then... well, then..." Bowser grunted, rubbing his hand on his head, frustration over coming him. "I-I can't remember..."

Lucina shook her head, her hand brushing away her blue bangs from her eyes. "Nor can I. I can only remember the day of the announcement and.. that's actually it." Her eyebrows furrowed and her lips frowned, turning her head slightly lower. "I can't seem to remember much else about... anything. My life, where I was, just..."

"The announcements and wakin' up here," Bowser grumbled. Lucina paused briefly before nodding at him slightly. "Tsk. It's ridiculous! Could hardly remember my name nor my kingdom and my kid... God, where the hell are we?"

"You've been asking that for a while now," Fox piped in, his mouth slightly forming a smile. "And to make sure I understand, both of you had also just awoken moments prior to that event outside?" His question was answered with nods from both of them. All three of them now sat in silence, pondering their situation. Fox finally broke the silence once more, his curiosity still piqued. "We should explore the rest of this building. Perhaps there are others."

* * *

The trio ventured further down the corridor, noticing several doors lined up along the walls. The classroom they had originally left was numbered 'B2', while all these other rooms remained nameless. However, trying to open them proved futile, as either the locks were busted or they just wouldn't open. It mattered not, as Fox now began to note the lack of windows in this strange hallway, the only source of light the numerous fixtures poking out from the ceiling.

 _This must be a school..._ Fox pondered to himself, curious as to who or what had brought them here. Along with that, he too wondered the same thing Bowser kept asking: where were they taken? He definitely didn't recognize the build or markings of the hallway, and the lack of decorations and windows didn't do any favors for him either. Albeit, if they weren't somewhere within Corneria, he wouldn't recognize it that well. The sound of their footsteps was finally broken as Bowser began to chime up once more.

"These things wrapped around our wrists," he said, grumbling, his right hand twisting the metal band around, "you don't happen to know what they do?"

"They look like watches," Fox replied, observing his once more, his eyes reflecting back off the face of the band. "If they are, our captor had forgotten to replace their batteries."

"Watches?" Lucina asked, her face curiously eyeing her own now.

Fox piqued his eyebrows, remembering now that they all come from different parts of the world. "Ah, Lucina," he said, her face turning towards him. "The country you're from again, if you happen to remember it's name, what was it?"

Her eyebrows furrowed as she crossed her arms, her teeth nibbling on her lower lip. Her eyes closed momentarily, before reopening to a still worried face. "I.. I believe it's called Ylisse. My mother and my father, however... I cannot recall. Ylisse was however never introduced to these 'watches' before, that much I am sure of."

"Hmpf, really?" Bowser chimed in, cocking an eyebrow. "You must be from an incredibly dated country since most parts of the world would have access to somethin' so simple as a watch." Lucina simply replied with a nervous laugh, rubbing the back of her head as Fox shrugged.

After minutes of walking they finally reached the end of the hallway, a set of doors awaiting them. Thinking they too would be locked just as the rest of the ones in the hallway, Fox pressed his hands against the door and gave them a quick shove, almost losing his balance as they flew open, much to his surprise. Ahead of them was an even brighter light and much more open space, the trio now entering and seeing several other faces, all of them as confused and worried as their own.

"More people!" A higher pitched voice cried out, sounding almost to a young boy's, the voice coarse as well.

"Wahaha! Look at 'em, they'ra like little rabbits, 'cept-a for the big doofy one!" A much louder and ruder voice shouted.

"Ah, can it be?!" A woman's voice now said, coming closer to the trio as the doors shut behind them. She wore a pink dress that frilled near the bottom, a large blue stone hanging around her neck. Her arms wore long white gloves, with the hands holding her dress up slightly as she ran closer and closer to them, reaching them and panting. Her blonde hair bobbed up and down with her breaths as she bent over slightly, rearing back up to greet the three of them, or specifically, Bowser.

"P-Peach?!" Bowser called back, shock having apparently taken him aback, his eyes wide. "W-What the heck are you doin' here?! How'd you get wound up in this place?"

As the two of them greeted with one another, another smaller figure came running after Peach, his appearance much more worn and worried. He had on blue overalls, with one strap having come loose, a green long-sleeved shirt underneath them. His left sleeve appeared to have been ripped off completely at the shoulder. His black mustache remained in order, but his brown hair was all wild and messy, almost appearing that he had just gotten out of bed. "P-Princess, careful! It's-a B-Bowser!"

"And Luigi? That twerp, of all people..." Bowser retorted, snorting out loudly, his upset tone showing for them all.

Footsteps followed Luigi, and with it a booming voice, the man's presence catching all of their attention immediately. "With you three, that makes fifteen of us." His arms were crossed, each of them wearing yellow gloves. He had on a blue body suit, with a yellow scarf wrapped around his neck. He wore a bright red helmet over his head, with a golden falcon adorned on the front of it. His eyes shone behind a black visor, giving off an incredibly serious vibe.

"Which means my theory was correct," another voice chimed in, this one seeming similar to the boy's voice from earlier, but much more serious and mature in tone. He remained near the back of the large room, his eyes shut, leaning back against the wall. Dark, black wings were barely visible behind him, the same color as his black hair. He appeared no older than thirteen or fourteen, and he wore a black undershirt that wrapped around his torso. Mixed in with his black hair was a gold laurel crown, and besides his black wrist wraps, gold bracelets lined his arms, aside from a faint silver band that wrapped around his left wrist. "We weren't brought in at random. Even if not all of you can remember it, we were specifically targeted."

"We are all part of the P.M. Project," a girl's voice said, sounding no older than Lucina. As she stepped forward now, a pit-pattering followed after, her bare feet drawing her closer to the center of the auditorium. Red eyes glared back at Fox and Lucina, with the rest of her head covered in silver hair, reaching down to her back. She had on an elaborate silver armor that bore a blue cape behind her, a blue sash wrapping around her body and pinning itself to her abdomen.

Silence fell upon the room as this realizing began to sink into them. Fox looked from face to face, all of them bearing worry at the situation that began to unfold itself. One by one, he glanced from body to body to see if he could recognize any of them, perhaps striking up a memory that might help him figure out who had captured them. He started with the boy who shouted out as they entered, the one who sounded similar to the dark winged boy. While almost appearing identical in image to him, he instead had white wings and, while wearing the same clothing, it was all white instead, bearing the same gold laurel in his brown hair.

The rude voice belonged to a short, stout man, a diabolical mustache shooting out from underneath a large, pink, crooked nose. He had on a black shirt that barely covered his enormous belly, with a torn-sleeve, blue-jean biker jacket over it. He had on yellow gloves with bright blue W's inscribed on them. His bright pink pants came up over his belly, with a yellow cap to cover his hair. Next to him was a blonde haired child, a small boy who didn't seem to be any older than ten. He had on a yellow and orange striped shirt along with blue jean shorts. As Fox met his gaze, he blushed almost, ducking further behind the rude man to keep himself hidden it seemed.

On the other side of the room, two feminine figures stood next to one another, their own gazes wandering the room, doing the same as Fox it seemed. The first was a blonde haired woman who's height seemed to tower the other. Her face was stern and serious, her eyes narrow as they wandered. She had on a black jacket that dropped to her thighs, a blue shirt remaining underneath it. Her legs remained bare aside from her feet, both of them standing on what seemed to be mechanical heels, the bottom of them a bright yellow. Her face turned to meet Fox's and the latter quickly looked away, her gaze becoming overbearing immediately.

Beside her was a much shorter woman, her appearance much more royal than Peach's own. She had long ears poking through her brown, long hair, a golden tiara sitting on top of her head. Her dress started pink but as it reached her abdomen, split into a white design, faint markings etched into the bottom of it. The front of her dress had a banner than hung off a belt around her waist, the banner inscribed with various symbols that Fox didn't seem to recognize.

A small noise appeared beside Fox's foot now as he quickly turned and look down, his expression reflecting how he was caught off guard. Almost the same size of the boy, a small yellow creature stood beside Fox now, it's head cocked with two long yellow ears extending out, the tips of them black. Around its next was the same metal band on all of their arms. Its eyes blinked at him, bright red cheeks shining back at Fox's eyes as the creature piped up at Fox. "Pika...?" The creature now nudged Fox with its short hands, pointing at the back of the auditorium where a large, satin curtain laid resting.

Fox turned to Lucina and nodded, the two of them now stepping towards it. As they did, the booming voice from earlier spoke up once more. "Oh? That's right, think we were supposed to have checked back there a few minutes ago."

"What do you mean?" Fox asked.

"I was the first to arrive, followed by Corrin and Lucas- oh, the silver haired girl and the blonde kid," he replied, pointing at each person respectively. "When we got here, we immediately headed towards those curtains, but a voice kicked into the monitor above and instructed us to wait around nine minutes, confident that's when the rest of you guys would arrive. Sure enough..."

"Mr. Falcon is right," Corrin replied. "We all agreed to follow the instructions, and thus came the rest of you all." Lucas too nodded, still cowering behind the larger man who seemed to not notice the boy. Fox and Lucina approached the curtains now, each of them grabbing one side of it, nodding at one another before pulling them across the floor. As they came to a stop, they both peeked around, curious as to what was hidden behind it.

A large bulletin board sat across the stage, reaching nearly from curtain to curtain. Everyone in the auditorium approached the stage now, their eyes fixated on the board, a slow dread coming over each and every one of them as more curiosity sat among them. Each of their faces were printed out and stuck to the massive board, with their names underneath each one. Fox noticed a face that he had yet to encounter, one that was remaining in the shadows beside the dark winged boy, Dark Pit. _Robin.._ her name sat in his head as he peered out, spotting her pink hair from the shadows. Her face glared back at his, and he left it at that, returning to eye the board as Falcon spoke up once again.

"What the hell is this supposed to be?" he said, agitated. "Are we stuck in some kinda sick bastards game?!" Almost on cue, the monitor above them screeched as the screen flickered on, a face appearing before them. Each of them stepped backwards and gazed above at the screen as a masked face began to speak.

"Good morning to each and every one of you," he said. His voice was muffled, sounding almost as if it was behind a synthesizer or a mixer. His mask was that of a plague doctor's mask, the long black beak poking forwards, foggy goggles resting over his eyes, blurring them from recognition. "I apologize if you had a rough sleep, or a rough awakening, but time is ticking and we _must_ begin soon." His words came out slow, almost methodical, as each letter was said to keep them on the edge of their seats. "While I _wish_ you all would have more time to greet one another, we simply are out of time for that."

"Hey asshole, how about comin' out and greeting us in person?!" Bowser shouted, his fist clenched.

"Pipe down you ape," the blonde woman called over, Fox noticing her face belonging to Samus. Bowser grumbled and shot a glare at her, Samus ignoring him for the most part, her eyes still fixated on the screen. "This is most likely a recording, so jeering at it won't do you much good."

"Ahead of you behind the curtains is a large placard, to which each of you will find a face belonging to yourself. Hopefully." the voice chuckled, much to nobody's amusement. "In case you had forgotten who you were, I had gone ahead and written your name underneath it. My apologies if that is the case, I might have given you too large of a dose."

 _So we were drugged here then.._ Fox thought to himself, crossing his arms.

"This board is where you all will essentially track each other's, well, scores I suppose. After all, it's something hard to lose track of, and it might just happen in the game you are all about to play."

"A game?" Pit asked aloud, his head cocked. Falcon sighed, shaking his head.

"The exit to this facility is just outside this room, in the large entryway. Any of you are free to walk out, but bear in mind the bracelet wrapped around your wrists. Or neck," another chuckle followed his voice as all of them now peered at the metal bands he had just been talking about. "If you attempt to walk out those doors with that bracelet on, you will be given two injections. First, a muscle relaxant: slowly, your body will grow tired, and eventually you will not be able to resist the urge to lie down and close your eyes. Once that happens, you will be given a second injection, this one containing a lethal poison that will cause your heart to stop beating."

"N-No.." Peach whimpered, her hand covering her mouth as she eyed the screen in terror, her panting growing louder. Fox looked among each of their faces, many others carrying the same worried look as Peach did. Wario simply appeared annoyed, his pinky finger digging into his ear, almost oblivious to the situation before him. Fox looked away and wrapped his hand around the bracelet once more, peering at it furiously, rage almost wanting him to begin smashing it against the floor in an attempt to free himself.

"There are three different ways to remove this bracelet: one, find a key hidden somewhere in this facility. Keep in mind however, that there is only two of these keys, and there are- well, were sixteen of you." Fox peeked back at the screen, confused now by what he had just said. "Two, by having your heart stop beating. If the bracelet detects no trace of a pulse, it will come off."

"So if we die then," Lucina said, her right hand clutching to her chest now.

"Third and final, by graduating from this school. If I, as headmaster, deem you worthy of graduation, I will remove your bracelet and you are free to continue life out there among the rest of the droll. Which, I do believe one of you are up for graduation as we speak," his voice echoed out, all their faces twisting in curiosity now. "As for the graduation process, it will play out as such: commit a murder and afterwards, escape the trial. If you are successful in not getting caught, I will let you walk the ceremony."

 _Murder?!_ Fox's eyes widen, now glancing at the others once again, all of them quickly doing the same, their guards rising. Fox glanced over at Lucina who looked back at him, even she now slowly moving her hand towards her sword, watching the others, her trust fleeting from all of them. _If he said one of us are up for graduation, that must mean... someone is already dead?! But... no!_ Fox turned back to the bulletin board and scanned over each face once more, counting them all, verifying there were in fact sixteen faces. But it didn't take long for him to realize now which face was missing from the rest of them in the auditorium.

"Falco! No!" Fox screamed, rushing towards the board, realizing now a large red X marked over his comrades face. Tears began to reach his eyes, his fists beating against the board, his gaze stuck on his friend's face. He clawed at the X, hoping maybe ripping it off would mean he would walk into the same room as him, his chest still beating. Instead, however, a hand grabbed his back and pulled him away. As Fox turned furiously to meet them, he calmed down as he saw everyone else now standing away from one another, distrust filling each of them. His eyes moved to the person that had grabbed him, the pink haired girl from before. "Robin..." Fox whined, his head lowering as the thought of his best friend, dead somewhere in this hell, filled his mind.

"On your bracelets, a time should appear. Normally, you will be given exactly one hour from when the first body was killed to explore the facility and figure out how the murder was committed, but for this trial, I will start the timer after this announcement ends. First, three loud beeps will play out, then the name of the room will appear. Afterwards, the time limit will show, and you are left on your own, but there will be a cheat sheet somewhere in that room that will give you further information about the case. Of course, if somebody else decides to get there first and hide it... mufufufu, well, I suppose you will be out of luck then."

"Snap out of it, now isn't the time to grieve," Robin said to Fox, her hands resting on his shoulders. "I understand how you feel, but if we're going to survive, you have to get through this! After we finish this, we will mourn him, but we can't waste any time before then!" Her voice was strict, and slowly Fox raised his head, meeting her eyes. "Trust me, and follow me. We will find his killer."

"Now then, let the game begin."

Three loud beeps followed the piercing sound of the monitor shutting off, and then a room number, one that Fox instantly recognized.

" **B2**?!"


	2. ARRIVAL II

**.**

 **BORN OF THE DESIRE**

 **ARRIVAL II**

* * *

"B2?!" Fox cried out, his body now sprinting towards the exit of the auditorium and back towards the hallway he had originally come from. Robin called out to him but he ignored her, his mind full of fury and pain as he now bashed against the doors. _If his body really is in there, that means... Oh god!_

His feet carried him faster and faster, and in an instant, he was outside the door once again, claw and scorch marks surrounding the floor and walls around the room. His heart pounded against his chest, his breathing shaking as hard as his hand as he lifted it towards the door knob. _It can't be true... It can't be true... This is just a dream..._ Fox kept repeating to himself. The handle twisted and he slowly opened the door, peering back into the very same classroom he had originally awoken in.

Everything was still the same, the desks lined along the floor, the monitor and cameras positioned in the same spots. He slowly made his way into the classroom and glanced around, taking in a deep breath before finally finding his feet having taken him in front of the lockers. _There are three of them, and I was in the middle one. Which means..._ Once again, Fox moved his hand towards the handle of the locker, this time to the rightmost one. His breathing came to a stop as his hand clutched the handle, an audible gulp following as he swung the door open, nothingness greeting him. He sighed, but instantly closed his eyes as she shut the door and now moved over to the leftmost locker.

"Falco... please, oh god, please don't be behind this door," Fox murmured. His hand trembled once more, and without delaying himself further, he grabbed hold of the handle and swung it open. His eyes grew wide and he stepped backwards several feet before tripping over, his head slamming against something hard, his vision escaping him. Darkness engulfed him once more now as he slowly began to lose consciousness...

* * *

 _January 2nd, 21XX_

"Oi, Fox!" A voice shouted, Fox instantly poking his head out from the cockpit of the ship. A feathery hand motioned for him to come over and Fox obliged, leaping out of the cockpit and jogging over to him. "You've got a letter, and it's an awfully important one at that," the voice jeered, slapping it against Fox's chest as he approached him.

He glanced down at the letter as the other man left the room, his fingers running along the stamped imprint of a logo on the face of the envelope. "This is from the government?" Fox asked aloud, glancing around now as he realized he was alone in the room, much to his dismay. His fingers ran across the lip of the envelope, ripping it open, and he slipped a letter out from inside, quickly unfolding it to read its contents.

 _"To Fox McCloud,_

 _Congratulations! You have been chosen. As acting leader of the P.M. Project, I have decided your qualifications more than fit our needs. Further instructions will follow shortly after, but once more, congratulations on being the first chosen member of the P.M. Prospects._

 _Prime Minister Kibo"_

"No kidding, huh," Fox said to himself. Before he could go chasing after his friend, his body paused briefly. _P.M. Project... P.M. Project... wait, what the hell is that? Why does it sound so familiar- wait a second, am I dreaming?_ His thoughts began to warp and as he scanned the room, figures and objects became distorted and twisted. His heart beat faster as he could hardly tell what was happening. Darkness slowly poured into the room and inch by inch, crept up towards his feet. His back now against the wall, he dropped the letter and shut his eyes, wishing to be away from this place. A voice called out his name, and at first he ignored it, but slowly, it grew louder and louder until...

* * *

" **Fox**!" Robin shouted, smacking her hand now against his face, his body jolting up instantly in response. His vision came back to him slowly, and his eyes rested on Robin's soft face, her eyes relieved as he shook himself awake. "You scared me, I thought you decided to leave us as well." Robin instantly bit her lip in response, realizing what she had said, but Fox knew he couldn't ignore the truth any longer. His sad eyes met Robin's one last time before he nodded his head, pulling himself up and looking back towards the lockers.

 _We've been awake for less than an hour, but I have to do this. I have to figure out who murdered him..._ Fox told himself, breathing in deeply. _As persistent as Robin has been, its almost strange, but I will worry about that after this investigation is over._

Falco's body laid on the floor in front of the lockers now, sprawled out on his chest. Blood oozed out on to the floor around it, a sickly hue of crimson red now stuck in Fox's eyes. He shook his head once more, breathing in slowly, attempting to grasp himself on the situation before him. He turned his head to the rest of the classroom as he noticed several others were inside as well, peering at the scene. One of them, Falcon, walked up slowly and placed his hand on Falco's back, running it up and down.

"Hmm, here," he said, his fingers stopping near the middle of Falco's back. "This must be the opening." He dipped his fingers in slightly within the hole and pulled them out, crimson red now staining the tips. He muttered to himself before wiping the blood off on his pants, standing back up. "Then it's simple, he was stabbed in the back and thrown into the locker. Not much else to go off of on this case."

"Not quite," Robin piped in, her arms crossed as she eyed the room. "You can't surmise an answer simply from one piece of evidence. While it's good that we know of one possible fatal blow, we don't know anything else such as if this really was the room the murder was committed in, or even what the culprit's motive was."

 _The culprit's motive.._ Fox thought to himself. _What would inspire a man to murder someone in cold blood that they had just met?_

"None of us knew about the graduation conditions until fifteen minutes ago," Pit chimed in, scratching his head. "So to just kill the first person you see, that seems insane to me!" Fox realized now that a new image appeared on the face of his bracelet, a timer counting down. On it were the numbers " **44** ", indicating that Pit was right. On that note though, he also realized so much time had already been lost due to him blacking out. He still didn't want to face the bitter truth of reality, but he knew he had to, for his friend's sake.

"If we can't figure this out, we're gonna be meeting the same fate as that bird.." Falcon said, his hand now rubbing the temple of his forehead. "I'm going to go look around and see if any of the other classroom doors open. Shout at Wario outside if something comes up, he should be keeping watch for us." As Falcon left the room, Fox took note of the remaining persons in the room: Robin, Pit, Lucina, Zelda, and himself. He then took note of Falcon and Wario's locations, meaning now only the other half of their group would be missing. His eyes blinked over several times before he noticed something tapping his leg, his sight turning to greet Pikachu.

"Oh? Something wrong?" Fox asked the electric mouse, who replied by nudging a piece of fabric towards Fox's foot. He knelt down and picked it up, realizing it was some kind of ripped fabric, perhaps belonging to a shirt? That wasn't all, however. Robin moved over and looked at it, nodding her head.

"It has dried blood smeared on it," she said, reaching towards the fabric and grabbing it from Fox. She eyed it carefully, confirming her suspicions. "It's no bigger than a handkerchief, but it definitely doesn't seem to be that."

"Then perhaps somebody had cut it off something else?" Zelda asked, her tone and presence as royal as her appearance. Robin nodded, her eyes still fixated to it.

"It seems that way. Maybe.." Robin turned back towards Falco's body and began to rummage through it, much to Fox's dismay. She moved her hands to his jacket and pulled it off his cold corpse, her eyes wandering around before spotting exactly what they were looking for. "Aha!" She pointed to his white undershirt, indicating a tear near the bottom of it. While the tear seemed to encompass a large amount of his undershirt, the fabric itself was much smaller. Robin was still certain though, as the two were similar in texture and color. "The killer ripped this piece off of his shirt. As to why though..."

"Ah, maybe to staunch the flow?" Lucina chimed in, Robin and Fox turning their attention onto her. "I did happen to notice a lack of blood when we had originally come into this room. It seems strange that there wasn't any in here to begin with if the body was stored here. And on that note," she now moved towards the locker door Falco had come from, messing with the door slightly, "why didn't the blood pour out sooner?"

"Do you hear that grinding as you move the door around?" Robin asked, Lucina repeating her steps and acknowledging the sound "Most likely, the space between the door and the locker is extremely tight that not even blood could make it through."

"However, in regards to the rag," Robin continued, "if that was the case, then this rag would be soaking still, but the blood is quite dry," Robin replied. "If the killer intended to, say, stuff this in his wound, when Falcon had reached in there, he would have been met with resistance like-" Her voice stopped abruptly as she dipped her fingers into the wound as well, however, realizing there was something in there. She plucked out more fabric, this time much larger than the one they had previously found, and much more soaked in blood. Her eyes squinted and she furrowed her eyebrows, glancing at the doorway outside.

"Lucina, go grab Falcon," Robin commanded, Lucina nodding her head and making her way towards the door. Before she could reach it, Robin spoke up again. "Actually, go check up on him. Keep an eye out and make sure he isn't up to anything suspicious. And tell Wario where you're going before you do go, if he's really out there." Lucina paused briefly, but she glanced at the timer on her bracelet, instead nodding her head and leaving the classroom. Fox mimicked her and checked the timer, seeing the numbers now at " **38** ".

"Do you think Falcon was lying then?" Zelda asked, her eyes observing the scene thoroughly.

"No, but I don't know he wasn't either. This is just a precautionary move," Robin replied.

Fox tapped his head with a finger, deep in thought now. _It does seem odd that Falcon didn't mention this. If he really was trying to hide it, you would think he would've done a better job, or perhaps lied and mentioned the rag. Why didn't he?_ Before he could continue, something else caught his attention, and he began to look around the room, meeting Robin and Zelda's gazes once again. "Neither of you happen to notice that 'cheat sheet' this 'headmaster' mentioned earlier?"

Robin shook her head. "No. The only thing that I can think of being related to it would be the chalk board behind us, but unfortunately-"

Before she could continue, Fox gasped, his gaze locked on the chalk board. "Wait, this had writing on it earlier!" he cried out, blinking several times over, even going as far as rubbing his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things wrong. "When I woke up in this room, I noticed writing all over the board, but I paid no attention to it at the time-"

"Then the culprit returned here and cleaned it off so none of us could utilize it," Robin replied, her hand on her chin now, "which means if it was still there when the three of you entered the auditorium, it would have had to of happened between the time you blacked out and when we found you."

"Then during the first ten to fifteen minutes after the game started," Pit chimed in. "A few others went looking for you when you didn't return immediately, but, ah... I didn't exactly pay attention to who. I was-"

"Bickering with the other angel," Zelda replied, Pit freezing up as if she had shot ice at him. She smiled slightly, continuing. "Robin, Pit, and I remained in the auditorium for a few moments after the device began yelling."

Fox nodded at Zelda, and then spun around and met with Pit, the wheels in his head slowly turning now as pieces began to form. "Can you remember who all remained in the auditorium besides you three? Perhaps we can begin to clue in to who it might've been from there."

Pit tapped his chin briefly before Zelda spoke up. "Wario, Samus, Dark Pit, and... the large brutish one-"

"Bowser," Fox replied, Zelda nodding her head. "That means during that time, Lucina, Falcon, Pikachu, Corrin, Peach, Luigi, and Lucas were all missing. So, out of all of them, we're not sure who could've entered this room."

"That is, assuming you didn't just go and clean the board off yourself," Pit replied, his face frowning. "You did run off immediately before any of us could say a thing. And apparently you woke up in this room as well, meaning-"

"Fox couldn't have done it," Robin retorted, catching both of them off guard. He words came out fierce, a strange aura emitting from her it felt. "When I checked his body, he had been out for several minutes. So unless it was part of his plan to clean the board off and then risk cracking his skull open, he didn't do it." Fox turned and met her eyes once more, a layer of trust forming between the two.

 _Why are you so dead-set on aiding me? What are you up to Robin?_

"She's right. I know we don't know anything about one another, but I need you to trust me when I say I wouldn't kill him. He... He was..." Fox's voice began to croak slightly before Pit waved his hand dismissively before him, shaking his head.

"Ah, I didn't mean that in the wrong way. I just wanted to check every possibility, ya know?" Pit cheesed a slight grin, Fox slowly nodding his head back. "Anyways, is there anything else in this room or should we get a move on?"

Robin tapped her finger on her chin briefly once more before nodding her head, standing up from the body. "Pit's right. We've got about **32** minutes left. We need to go see if Falcon figured anything out. Come on." They headed towards the door, each of them exiting after one another, Pikachu the first one out and Robin the last. As she shut the door, she looked over and saw Wario standing a few doors down, grumbling to himself. Fox reached him first and poked his arm, a spastic reaction coming out from the strange man as he twisted and turned his body, spinning on his toes before shooting finger guns at the four of them.

"So! You-a came to meet with-a the big cheese himself!" Wario cried out, cackling all the while. Fox found himself groaning in response, but Robin piped up before he could say thing.

"Wario, where did Falcon and Lucina head off to?" she asked, the strange man once more spinning around.

"Wahaha! Wario guess-a you really aren't here-a for him. Well then!" He shook his head before opening his massive mouth once more. "Wario can't-a say where the girlie went, but-a the race car honcho said he-a was headed out towards the entryway of-a the building!"

"You don't know where Lucina went? Were you not standing out here the entire time!?" Robin replied, her words almost furious.

"Waa! Wario slipped into this-a room behind him and took a leak, give-a him a break!" Wario seemed to almost cower before her, but Robin shook her head.

"Do me a favor then. Stand outside room B2 and make sure nobody goes inside without me being present," Robin said, Wario rolling down the hallway towards the door. Wario replied with a 'yes ma'am' and saluted towards her, almost sarcastically, but really none of them had any way of telling. Robin turned to Fox now, her face calmer than before. "We'll go look for Falcon if you and Pikachu can check out the room Wario was talking about. If not all the doors were really locked, this room might hold a clue."

"Got it," Fox replied, Pikachu too nodded its head and giving a thumbs up. Before they split off completely, Robin called out for him again.

"One more thing for you to check as well," she shouted, "see which room each person woke up in, who they woke up with, and who all was already in the auditorium when they arrived!" Fox once again nodded, the team finally splitting up.

The two of them entered into room **B7** as Zelda, Pit, and Robin ran towards the exit. Inside was another classroom, nearly identical to B2's design, aside from a few things. Fox noted the desks were scattered about, not as aligned as in B2, and that each desk was also covered in a layer of dust. _Strange..._ Fox thought to himself, thinking back to the other desks that seemed to have been polished down in B2. _If the person responsible for setting up this game went through the trouble of cleaning up one classroom, why wouldn't he just lock away all the other rooms? Was this one left open on accident?_

Pikachu looked up towards him curiously. Both of them however began to wretch back as a smell hit them, one incredibly foul. Pikachu's eyes began to water, shaking its head repeatedly as Fox looked around the room for the source of the stench. _It must be from when Wario took his... leak... in here,_ he thought. He gave one more sniff before realizing that wasn't all. Pikachu watched as Fox now approached the smell in the corner, eyeing something sparkling in the urine. He reached for it reluctantly, grabbing what appeared to be a small pocket knife, blood surrounding the blade as well. _Wario was the last one to enter this room, and this... mark... surely confirms his story. Why didn't he mention this knife though?_

Finished with this room, both him and Pikachu left and he immediately looked over towards Wario, noticing somebody else now standing beside him. "Hey, Falcon!" Fox shouted, jogging towards him. Falcon and Wario both turned to face him, Falcon's arms crossed.

"Oh, Fox? Do you know where Robin went off to?" Falcon asked. "Wario here is saying that I'm not allowed in unless she's present, bah!"

Fox paused, cocking his head sideways slightly. "Did you not meet up with her?" Falcon shook his head, Fox's eyes avoiding his contact. _That's strange, he surely would have met up with her since this is a one-way hall only, one end of it starting right before classroom B1 and the other end being the doors to the auditorium.._ Fox thought to himself. "When did you arrive then?"

"Just moments ago. Did.. you happen to leave that room just now?" Falcon asked, pointing at the door leading to B7 still slightly ajar.

"We did. It seems it was the only other door on this hall that would open." Fox replied. "Wario seemed to have stumbled upon it."

"Wahaha, that-a Wario did! His bladder was about-a to erupt like a **volcano** , and man, lemme tell-a ya, you don't-a wanna see it!" He cackled, his hands placed on his enormous bouncing belly. "Heck, even Wario don't-a wanna see it! Wario shuts his eyes and just pisses where ever Wario felt-a was right!"

Once again, Fox paused at that statement, shaking it off moments after. _Hmm.. could it be then.._ His train of thought was interrupted as Falcon spoke up.

"Well, that couldn't have been the only door unlocked in this hallway," he replied, Fox now looking startled. "I found at least three other doors that were unlocked as well. I believe they were rooms **B5** , **B9** , and **B16**. All of them were caked in mounds of dust though, so I didn't do too much investigating in those rooms."

 _So that means my room was the only room that wasn't caked in dust. Strange..._

Fox turned towards Falcon, a new lead growing in his mind. "You said you were the first to enter, and then Corrin and Lucas entered after you, correct?"

"That's right. In fact, those two were with me when I woke up," Falcon replied. Fox pondered briefly, turning towards Wario who was once again twirling in place. Fox's face had drawn a grimace and he shut his eyes, a cold chill crossing over his body. _M-Maybe I'll go check with everybody else first..._ "I'm gonna go look for Robin." Pikachu and Fox sprinted back towards the auditorium doors. Fox glanced down at his bracelet, noting it now said " **20** " minutes.

 _Damn, we don't have much time left. I need to get back with Robin and tell her what I found._ As they entered the auditorium, Fox looked around and took note of everybody still in it. Corrin and Lucas were on one of the room, Corrin appearing to be consoling the smaller child. Fox spotted Dark Pit once more brooding near the back of the room, with Samus wandering around, searching the room for something. Curiously, he approached Samus, a few questions in his head that he wanted to confirm with her.

"Samus," Fox said as he approached her, her attention briefly looking over at him before darting away once again.

"What do you want?" Her words sent shivers down both Fox and Pikachu's backs, but Fox tried to pay no attention to it.

"Just a quick question. Can you confirm something with me?" Fox began to ask, Samus now turning towards him, her presence nearly overbearing.

"Before you get much further, understand that I want no part in any of this," she replied, her words once more shooting through him like bullets. "It's absolutely ridiculous that all of you are just running around and blindly following this man's orders without so much as a _peep_. We've been awake for less than an hour and we're already thrown into this insane game? And you think he's not actually just screwing with you all?"

Fox paused, clearly caught off guard, but before Samus could turn away from him, he retorted, his own words now laced with a bit of rage. "It's not so much we're playing into his game that it is I'm trying to figure out who **murdered** my friend." His gaze remained on her's as she sighed, shaking her head as he continued. "You're right, it is stupid we're just running around like chickens, but as to why we're here and what we're doing, I'll worry about that after I've brought justice for **him**."

"Then you do just that, but leave me out of it. I have no intentions of playing this game," Samus replied, her back now turned to him. "My objective will be finding a way out of this **prison**." Fox and Pikachu left her now, Samus biting on her thumb as they did. Dark Pit watched them both leave as a smirk grew on his face, twisted thoughts filling his mind to further fuel that twisted grin. Fox turned and headed towards the entryway door, seeing the entrance for the first time since arriving here.

 _Well that wasn't helpful,_ Fox thought to himself, grumbling over his encounter with Samus. _I can understand the situation we're in, but acting cold towards the rest of us won't get us out of here._ Windows lined across the wall towards the large double doors, each window however covered with a large metal sheet. The doors themselves were simple, but the rule stuck in his head...

" _If you attempt to walk out those doors with that bracelet on, you will be given two injections..."_

 _I'd best not chance and see if he was bluffing._ The entrance didn't have much more to it, a large red rug leading from the doors to the back of the hallway, splitting left and right. A large grand staircase sat on both ends of the room, leading upwards to another floor, and directly across from the door to the auditorium was yet another door, this one metal, a small glass windows affixed on the upper middle of it. Above it sat a label titled **BOILER**. Footsteps caught his attention, seeing Bowser, Peach, and Luigi coming up to him and Pikachu.

"Fox!" Bowser shouted, waving his massive paw. "You went missin' and then we kinda freaked out for a second. Glad to see you didn't end up dead or somethin'." Peach smacked his arm, scowling at his words as Bowser rubbed his head. Fox smiled, shaking his head.

"I'm actually looking for Robin, if you've seen her."

"The pink haired chick right?" Bowser replied, scratching his chin. "I think I saw her run off down the hallway and to the left." Fox nodded his head, but before he could continue, Bowser kept talking. "You.. you don't happen to think one of us seriously went and whacked somebody before any of this even started? Without a reason? I mean, hell, I know I was throwin' a fit at the other girl when I first woke up, but I mean I wasn't intending to kill her... to take her life. That... that's just a whole 'nother level."

Fox looked down at his feet, his eyes sad. He pondered briefly, before replying back, but with a different response that expected. "So, Lucina was the only other person that awoke in your room with you?" Bowser seemed to also have been caught off guard, nodding his head in response after a brief pause.

"Only thing is though," Bowser began to reply, "we woke up in the hallway, right outside your room. We weren't in another room."

"Really?" Peach asked, her face staring curiously, both Bowser and Fox now turned towards her. "I had awoken inside inside a fairly dusty room near the end of the hallway. I believe it was B16? Pit and Wario were there with me when we did first open our eyes."

"I-It-a was t-the same-a with me," Luigi replied as well, almost eagerly. "Zelda and-a, umm, the scarier lady, were with-a me in B5."

Fox remained still briefly, his mind racing in different thoughts now. _It almost seems like there is a trend, but Bowser and Lucina seem to not fit within it. Perhaps it's just coincidence? Or is there really a connection between the rooms we woke up in and the culprit? I've got a few more things to ask, though.._

"Peach, Luigi, do you guys remember by chance who all was already in the auditorium when Bowser, Lucina and I arrived?"

Both of them looked at one another, before Luigi piped up this time, shaking slightly. "Umm, while-a I'm not-a hundred percent-a sure, I think I remember seeing Falcon and that silver haired girl and small boy in there..." Peach now looked curiously at him, her cheeks puffing as she seemed to be in deep thought. Fox nodded at Luigi, taking note of what he was saying.

"That seems odd," Peach replied before Fox could get a word in. "When we had arrived, it was only moments before you all, perhaps just five minutes? It seemed that there were people missing as well."

 _Missing?_ Fox thought. "Do you know where they would have been?"

"Ah! They-a were checking the entryway out-a!" Luigi replied excitedly. "Said they still-a got time before everyone-a else shows up."

 _So people were wandering about before we had arrived, which means the culprit could have returned to the scene before the headmaster revealed the rules to us. That opens up a whole new bag of possibilities, but narrows them down just as well._

"You figure it out yet?" A voice asked, her words confidant. Fox rubbed his head momentarily before spinning around behind them, Robin now approaching him.

"I can't say that I have, but I have a fairly good hunch," he replied. "And it has to do with what you might've discovered down that hallway behind you." Robin grinned further, nodding her head.

"Then it sounds like you've got the majority of this case figured out. Great!" She clapped her hands and then turned towards the other three, moving towards them. "I'm going to do some last minute questioning if you want to go back into the auditorium. Then, we'll confront this self-proclaimed 'headmaster' and play his little game out." Fox and Pikachu left the entryway and entered the auditorium once more, noticing now Lucina inside as well. Fox ran up towards Lucina, greeting her once more.

"Hey Lucina," Fox said, Lucina smiling back at him. "Where did you happen to run off to?"

"Oh, right! I didn't see the one called Wario outside so I kept running around until I ran into a closet," she replied. Lucas stood next to her, listening. "It seems that was the same room Lucas and Corrin had woke up in."

"A closet?" Fox replied, almost in disbelief.

"It's the first door on the right once you enter the classroom hallway..." Lucas replied this time, his voice sounding heavy and full of sorrow.

"Strange," Fox replied. _That means it was just them two as well, which seems very similar to Bowser's story. However, that's not what I'm worried about..._ "Was Falcon not with you when you two woke up?"

Lucas shook his head. "W-We ran into him when we left the room.. We heard footsteps outside and Corrin wanted to confront them, and then that's when we met him.."

Fox paused only briefly before continuing on, noticing the timer on his watch now stating ' **2** ' minutes left. He squatted down to Lucas and rubbed his hair, smiling. "Thank you very much. Now, we need to make sure we figure out who the culprit is. If we fail, he'll get to escape while the rest of us are to sit here and look awfully silly." Lucina cocked her head strangely, biting on her lower lip, appearing as if that last phrase had struck a nerve in her mind. Fox didn't seem to notice, but Pikachu did, nudging slightly on Fox who seemed to not take notice at all. Before he could say anything else, however...

 **BING! BING! BING!**

A hideously loud noise emitted from all of their bracelets, the face now reading a simple " **0** " on it. _Time's up then..._ Fox thought to himself. A noise came from the monitor above the stage, the same plague doctor mask greeting them all.

"It appears the time limit has been reached. If you all would, please meet back in the auditorium. The longer you take, the less time you'll have for your trial!" the voice chuckled. Fox, Lucas, and Lucina all turned and looked at one another worriedly. They sat around in silence now, Fox's mind racing in different thoughts, various footsteps entering the room one after another. After only a few minutes, the rest of the 'prisoners' had returned, each of them casting the same look as Fox. He did notice the distrust in each other's groups, eyes simply darting back and forth between them inside of saying anything. Robin was last to enter, her steps taking her to approach Fox.

"Now we get to the real part of the game," Robin said, her eyes watching the black monitor screen above. "We're to put our investigative work all on the line here."

"Robin, while we do have this time to ourselves, I need to ask you something," Fox began. Before he could continue further, Robin spoke up.

"I know what you're going to say, and all I'll say in response is that you've got to make it out of this **alive**." Her words struck a chord in Fox, his mind confused by this statement. Once again, before he could say anything else, Robin spoke up once more. "Well, what I mean is that we all have to escape. We can't let this psychopath control our fates." Fox wanted to speak more with her, but this time the screeching sound of the monitor clicking up interrupted his thoughts, that wicked face appearing once more.

"With everyone gathered here, please enter the door ahead into an elevator. There, it will take you to the trial room, where I await you all." As soon as he finished speaking, the bulletin board on the stage began to shake and slowly sunk into the stage floor, a red carpet revealed behind it, and a door attached to that. Lights adorned the metal frame of the door, appearing almost like Christmas lights, mocking them it seemed. Each of them were hesitant, unsure what exactly would happen if they did or didn't follow his orders, with Samus first to speak up.

"I don't know if this is just another recording or if you're watching us in real time," she shouted, "but what if we don't listen and stay behind?"

The man chuckled, each of them realizing it was in real time and not another recording like earlier. "Unfortunately for you, participation is **mandatory**. If you do not play the game, you are breaking one of the headmaster's rules, and, if you break any of those, then the same penalty as leaving with the bracelet on will apply."

"So there are other rules then?" she responded, her questioning seeming not over just yet. "Why would you **not** go over all of this before throwing us into this trial!?"

"As I had said previously, we were short on time as a blackened had appeared much, much sooner than I anticipated. If I had delayed this further, the body might have grown more cold and given you less evidence to work with." His words resounded among each of them, the idea of one of them being a murder still eluding them almost. "I want this trial to be as fair as possible. You will see that I follow the rules just as well as I would expect you all to."

Begrudgingly, Samus acknowledged his response and was the first now to enter the elevator, much to Fox's surprise. One by one, each one of the others followed suit until they had completely filled the metal cage, Luigi last to enter. The screen shut off, and as it did, the doors slowly closed, a grinding sound filling their ears. Slowly, the descent began, and each of them remained in silence, only the sound of metal grinding and their heartbeats filling the chamber.

Fox glanced from person to person, each of them looking down or away from the others, perhaps still wary to trust one another, or perhaps pondering over the case. Fox's gaze turned to Robin's, who glanced back at him, giving him a weak smile. Fox replied back with one of his own, and he turned to greet Pikachu, who still remained at his side, rubbing its paw across one of it's long ears. Fox was left to muse in his thoughts as the elevator slowly descended, deeper and deeper.

 _One of us killed Falco..._ he thought, the image of his beloved friend's body still burnt into his memory. _And nobody owned up to it, meaning someone is lying to us all. Who's the culprit then?_ His eyes darted between them, noting Zelda, Wario, Peach, Bowser, Luigi. Crossing over to the other side of the elevator, he glanced between Robin, Pit, Lucina, Corrin, and Falcon. And finally, he looked over at Dark Pit, Lucas, Samus, and Pikachu. _One of them is the culprit... and I'll reveal who it is!_

The elevator came to a halt as the door dragged itself open, the room awaiting them all to enter, with a wicked voice sounding ahead.

"Come in. The class trial will begin shortly."


	3. ARRIVAL III

.

 **BORN OF THE DESIRE**

 **ARRIVAL III**

* * *

Light shone through several sets of stained glass, different figures painted against each backdrop, the room glowing in an arrangement of various colors, with the center of the room lit by a simple chandelier light from above. On the different glass windows, each figure seemed to represent some sort of different creature, one of them yellow with a vicious dark-blue devilish figure in the middle, it appearing to be dancing on top of several white skulls. Across from that one, however, was one showing the opposite image; a white winged creature on a bright blue backdrop, several hands reaching up towards the creature. Next to it was another showing a great tree growing tall, pink fruit dotting across it's green body, and another showing a blue-clad knight, kneeling in front of a long, magnificent blade.

Each of these images caught Fox's eyes as he and the rest of them now filed into the room, the center of it displaying several podiums lined up into a circle. Fox paid not much more attention to the center of the room however, as he began to notice similarities between the stained glass windows and themselves, now spotting an orange fanged creature on four legs, a long, bushy tail coming from behind it as it preyed on the image next to it, one that would haunt Fox for the remainder of this trial: the image was of a blue bird, but the glass itself was shattered into pieces, somehow appearing frozen in place in some sort of stasis as if to taunt him.

"These are.. us?" Lucina asked aloud, her eyes wandering the room as she too now realized their meaning. Each of them followed suit and found images that reminded them of one another, Pit spotting the white winged creature, Peach spotting the reference to that of a peach tree, and Robin now spotting one that too would haunt her, the image of a small, pink bird, hanging from a long rope as it laid above a book of some sort.

"Come now, you will have plenty more opportunities to digest those pictures," the voice called out, each of them now turning to the center of the room once more. "Each of you will find your name on the appropriate podium. Stand at it, and we will begin the trial."

 _There's no turning back now,_ Fox thought to himself, his eyes remaining firm on the center light ahead of them. _I have to do this, for Falco!_

"Before we do continue, can I ask you something?" Robin asked, her voice stopping several of them now from moving. The room remained silent, as if awaiting further from Robin as she took it the same way. "Will you go over the rest of the rules we need to know before we start this? For instance, what we are exactly _playing_ for. What's at hand and what we lose if we vote incorrectly, purposely or accidentally." _Purposely?_ Fox rubbed his chin, curious by this statement. It seemed Robin's question would not go unanswered as their captor's voice spoke up in response.

"Very well. But first, come and stand together. Once you do, I will go over the rules of the trial itself." Robin seemed pleased by his response, stepping forward towards the circle of podiums and finding her's within seconds. Her arms crossed over one another as she looked at the rest of them, her face cocking an eyebrow as she waited impatiently now. Each of them stepped forward as well, Peach and Bowser next to follow, with Lucina, Wario, and Samus finding their places as well. One by one, the rest of them found their own, with Luigi last to the circle, his body shaking as each step he took felt like an eternity was passing.

As they stood there for a few moments that lingered on for much longer than any of them had expected, the lights around them began to dim as the images in the windows began to vanish. The only light remaining now was that from the chandelier above them, and the shattered window that had the blue bird image, as if to remind them of who it was that was missing. Coincidentally, another image sat on a long wooden pole at one of the podiums, the image that of Falco, his face however marked with a large red **X**. While Fox tried to ignore this, he did notice an extra empty seat, which including it meant seventeen seats for the sixteen of them.

"Now then," the voice began again, this time coming from above them, each of them now realizing the headmaster was not actually in the room with them. "I shall begin with a basic explanation of the class trial. During the trial, each of you will present your arguments for who the culprit is and collectively vote for who you believe is responsible. If the majority vote correctly, the individual responsible, the blackened, will face **punishment**. However, if the vote picks the wrong person, each of you besides the blackened will face **punishment** and the blackened will be allowed relief from their bracelet and will walk the ceremony for their graduation."

"Punishment?! What the hell does that mean?!" Bowser shouted, rage building up in both his face and his voice as others began to chime up as well.

"You bastard, you didn't mention this at all!" Samus shouted as well.

"D-Does that-a mean w-we're going to-a d-die!?" cried Luigi.

"There is more," the headmaster continued, the voice booming over each of them and silencing their wailing. "If you refuse to vote at all, I will consider it direct **insubordination** and you will face punishment just for yourself. As for whether you want to vote incorrectly on purpose or not, that is entirely up to you."

"Then it begins," Falcon said, his hand now placed on his chin. "Very well then. Where do we start?"

"Ah, before you do, I have one piece of information to hand out to you all," the headmaster continued. "I wish to make this trial as fair as possible for all parties involved, so as such I will reveal any information that might have been hidden from you. Specifically, that I had given out a **perk** to the first of you all that had awoken. This " **first person** **perk** " essentially informed the person of the following rules I had explained just now and earlier."

Gasps could be heard around the room, as Falcon now slammed his hand down on the podium. "Then how does that make any of this fair?! Somebody had knowledge of this before we could even figure out what the hell was happening?" Chattered followed his words, most of it agreeing with what he had just said, followed by a chuckling voice, that of course coming from the headmaster.

"I simply provided the perk to the person for waking before any of you. That person was the one who decided to hide this information and utilize it for their own gain. Perhaps, then, it should be them that suffers your incurring wrath."

Falcon remained silent as he realized what those words meant. Robin shook her head, taking control of the trial now. "Whether or not this person took advantage of us doesn't matter at the moment. What matters is identifying who-"

"Doesn't _matter_!?" Samus exclaimed, her voice furious. "We could very well figure out right here and now who the culprit is if we can name whoever it was that received this stupid perk! It's obvious that because they knew about the punishment and the trial, they went ahead and killed that idiot before any of us were awake."

 _Idiot!?_ Fox gritted his teeth but remained silent, knowing further prodding would only cause much more distraction between them all.

"A-Ah, maybe we should take a deep breath," Peach chimed in, a weak smile forming over her face. "With each of us serving as a potential prosecutor and jury member, it's important we all remain calm and try to avoid shouting at one another..."

"And potential **culprit** ," Dark Pit added, his face grinning. "Let's keep that in mind as we get to be buddy-buddy with each other, 'kay?"

"I do believe Robin was saying something before she was rudely cut off," Pit said, a nervous laugh following after as he rubbed his head. "Robin, what was it-"

"A reminder for you that I simply said that the information at the time didn't pertain to the direction we need to head towards _at the moment_ ," Robin said, her eyes shut as Samus huffed, facing away from her. "And I very well understand how indicative it is of the person withholding information of the perk. But to reach that information, we need to break down every bit of this case."

"H-How do we k-know it wasn't **him** ," Lucas asked, his voice causing a pause to break among all of them. "H-He brought us here after all..."

"Yeah! What gives-a?! Wario wanna smack 'im right in his ugly face, waaaahaha!" Wario shouted, his fists swinging in the air above him.

"A fair question, but know that I am involved in this game as much as the rest of you," the headmaster replied, much quicker than any of them had anticipated. "and with that involvement I **cannot** **actively participate in the actual killing game** between you all. The rules forbid me as such."

Tapping could be heard as Samus, irritable still it seemed, retorted. "We have no way of believing you outside of blind trust. That's asking for a lot from a guy who kidnapped each of us."

"In all fairness, how well do you actually know these people around you?" Dark Pit asked, his arms crossed. Samus looked towards him, her stance showing weakness now as she thought over his statement. "We don't know anything about one another besides what our names are." Samus tried to speak back up, but she paused, looking away now as her confidence seemed to be shot, with Dark Pit once more casting a grin on his face.

"Then we shall get to know one another a little bit better?" Corrin asked, an image of innocence cast over her face. "Maybe we can determine the culprit from whoever seems less trustworthy.."

"As if!" Falcon retorted. "First of all, we don't have nearly enough time for that. And second, I'd assume the culprit isn't dumb enough to play into something like that!" His words seemed to cut into Corrin as she frowned, turning her face away to avoid the rest of them, it seemed almost out of embarrassment. Fox shook his head now, thinking to himself as others began to pipe up and bicker among one another.

 _This trial.. we're getting off course. We need to get back on subject and I think I know what Robin was trying to say..._

"It isn't a dumb idea! And you don't have to be such a jerk about it!" Pit shouted back at Falcon, his hands planted on the podium as his body leaned over towards the blue racer.

"Pika!" the small creature tried to shout, clearing the noise among them, however falling on deaf ears.

"Remember what Peach said, we need to remain calm," Zelda added in. It was useless, as Falcon and Pit continued to shout at one another, the two of them beginning to appear ready to reach over and strangle the other. Pikachu tried desperately to wave its small hands, and Dark Pit cackled madly, his hands holding tightly onto his stomach as he watched the scene between the two unfold. Fox closed his eyes momentarily and breathed in deeply, ready now to begin the trial.

"We need to clarify something, and that's who woke up in what room and with whom," he said aloud, catching each of their attention. "I'll attempt to reconstruct each room from the information given to me by you guys." Robin looked over and smiled softly, closing her eyes as Fox continued on. "I woke up in room **B2** and was by myself. Peach, Pit, and Wario woke up in room **B16**. Luigi, Zelda, and Samus woke up in room **B5**. Bowser and Lucina woke up in the hallway. Now here it gets a bit hazy, and I need you guys to help me clear this up. Corrin and Lucas woke up in the maintenance closet at the end of the hallway, while Falcon states he woke up with them in the same room-"

"In the same room? I ran into them outside that closet," Falcon chimed in, his hands placed on his hips. "If you're gonna try and run the show, get the facts straight."

 _Really?_ "On the contrary, I believe it was you that told me you woke up in the same room as them," Fox replied coolly. "In fact, Wario can attest to this statement as he was present with the rest of us."

Falcon's face seemed to freeze up briefly, his eyes still hidden from underneath his helmet, but Fox could feel the pressure he exerted on to him. Wario cackled, speaking up now. "Wahaha! Wario can-a say the big hauss is-a right on the gold!" More gasps could be heard, many of them wondering now what was to come next.

Fox decided he should continue his assault as Falcon appeared to be defenseless. "So then, it would seem out of all of us, the only ones we're not sure about where they were when we all had awoken are Falcon, Dark Pit, Pikachu, and-"

"Myself," Robin chimed in, interrupting Fox's approach. "The remaining three of us woke up in room **B9**. That's the only other room that was open anyways, right Falcon? You had conducted the room investigations yourself, after all." Her face continued to grin as Falcon shook his head.

"A-Ah, now hold on. I didn't mean to say what I did to Fox. I slipped up and misspoke, what with the pressure of the trial coming on us and all..." Falcon replied, his eyes averting Robin's gaze.

"If that's the case, you won't mind telling us what room you woke up in?" Robin asked.

Falcon paused briefly, hoping somebody else would chime in, but silence fell upon the room. He could feel numerous eyes peering on to him, if not all of them, as sweat beaded down his forehead beneath his helmet, his mouth dry. The light felt intense and he wanted to shroud himself from it, but all of that was pointless as he realized he couldn't avoid the truth any longer, his voice croaking as he spoke up. "I... I woke up in room B2."

 _You... no! Then my suspicions were true!_ Fox thought to himself, his face now forming a scowl. _Then that noise I heard when I first awoke in that locker, it was you! Dammit, had I woken up sooner, I probably could have saved you..._

"No wonder you stayed quiet!" Bowser shouted, his voice still full of anger. "It's obvious you're the **damn** culprit!"

"W-Wait one second, just because I woke up in the same room doesn't mean I did it!" Falcon shouted back, his hands gripping the sides of his podium. "I stayed quiet just because I knew you all would immediately place the blame on me! And just like Dark Pit said earlier, since we don't know shit about one another, I've got no way to get you guys to trust me otherwise."

"Then perhaps tell us one thing," Zelda asked calmly, her voice soothing almost, both Bowser and Falcon turning their attention towards her. "Was the body there when you awoke?"

Falcon remained still once again, his mouth frowning, his teeth clenched, as he slowly spoke up. "It was..."

Fox felt an urge to lash out at Falcon, as if he were actually some sort of hideous monster and not a human. He cast his enraged look across the room, but instantly calmed as he crossed upon Robin who looked back towards him, her face stoic and her head shaking, almost like she knew what Fox was thinking. _I.. I'll trust you a little longer Robin. I'm going to put my faith in you, that you'll reveal to us the truth._

"You didn't say anything about the body when we ran into you!" Lucas cried out, a surge of emotion coming from him that none of them had expected. "You **lied** to us right off the bat!"

"Why Mr. Falcon?" Corrin asked, her voice sounding like it was breaking into tears. "We trusted you!"

"So you hid the body then?" Zelda continued to ask, ignoring the words from the other two. Falcon didn't even speak up this time, he simply nodded his head slowly, his face full of dejection. Zelda sighed, her voice still calm but her gaze now cold and almost lifeless as she stared at him. "Then tell us why you refused to speak about this matter."

"Is it not obvious? He even told us earlier," Dark Pit spoke up. "He was simply trying to survive in a setting unfamiliar to him. He might not have known the stakes, but he sure as heck realized how bad it'd look for him if he told any of us. He might be the smartest one outta us all for sticking to his guts and not spitting out a peep! Or maybe he's just a coward! Haha!"

"Coward or not, it's true that Falcon didn't tell us any of this," Robin said. "While I realized Falcon was the outlier in room placements, I don't quite yet think he's the culprit." Fox wanted to speak up and argue with her, thinking to himself how ridiculous that statement was. It seemed almost obvious to him, but the whole time he knew Robin was withholding information, that being the truth of the case. He calmed himself once more, as opposed to others who began to rile up as Fox was just trying to.

"You're insane if you think this guy didn't kill him!" Bowser shouted. "He was the first to wake up, he killed that bird, and then he hid the body! It's as clear as friggin' day!"

 _But was he really the one who received the perk?_ Fox thought to himself. _Falcon would have made better use of his alibi had he really been utilizing the first person perk.. I think that's what Robin is trying to tell us!_

"While it is incredibly suspicious of him to remain silent about the matter, I do think we should explore all possibilities," Lucina chimed in. "I want to believe in Falcon, that he didn't really have malicious intent behind withholding information from us. It's almost hard to believe any of us do, really."

"'Believing in hope' is a tool that somebody is going to use against you," Dark Pit replied coldly. "Keep it up and you'll probably fall sucker and be the next victim.."

 _Believing in hope?_ Fox thought. _Is that all we can do right now? Have blind faith in one another? That's what I'm doing with Robin, after all..._

"She's right though! If we don't know anything about each other, we've got to have faith in one another in place of it!" Peach replied, her hands crossed with one another. "I too believe in Falcon, that he really wouldn't just murder somebody he's never met!"

"Then you're as much as a _fool_ as _she_ is," Dark Pit said, his face void of any emotion as he glared back at Peach. Peach huffed and puffed her cheeks out furiously, while Lucina looked away, appearing hurt by his words as she grabbed her left arm, her gaze now wandering to the floor beside her, her bangs falling over her eyes. Robin cleared her throat, her voice taking control once more.

"Getting back to the topic at hand, I simply said that I don't think we have enough evidence to convict Falcon as the culprit," she said. "That doesn't mean I think he's innocent, just that I cannot safely vote him as the culprit. By breaking down further points, we can draw that conclusion, but not until we stop getting distracted and focus on the trial."

"She's right," Fox chimed in. "I think it's safe to move the subject along to the murder weapon, which I believe to be _this_ pocket knife." Fox pulled the knife out from his pocket and flipped the blade out, dried blood still covering it. "I smelled something off, and I discovered it in the corner of the room of **B7** , in a pool of... um, water."

"AH! You mean-a my piss!" Wario exclaimed, his finger pointing towards the blade. "Wario thought-a somethin' was off, like-a Wario was hearin' dings and shings and bings! But Wario ignored it since Wario was gonna **burst**!"

"Y-You played in-a his pee?" Luigi asked shyly, Fox taken aback slightly, his eyes blinking over several times before shaking his head.

"T-That's not the point!" Fox regained his composure, any trace of red in his cheeks leaving now as he continued on. "The point is that this is most likely the murder weapon, as it matches the wound in Falco's back. The dried blood can attest to that as well, giving further proof that the murder happened long before I awoke in the room."

"With that said, I do want to direct attention back towards Falcon," Robin said. "When we began the investigation, you first inspected the victim's body. What I thought was strange was that you chose to prod the wound first, and then you didn't tell any of us about the piece of fabric that was stuffed into the wound. Was this also because you wanted to remain silent about discovering the body?"

Falcon still held his head low, but his voice did reply, albeit incredibly soft. "You're right.. When I discovered the body, blood was on the desk he was sitting at. I ripped off the cloth and wiped it up, and then to keep more blood from flowing out, I shoved the cloth in there." Fox now rubbed his chin, his mind lost in thoughts. _If that's the case, I wonder if Falcon was also responsible for all the desks in that room being cleaner than the other rooms..._ Wanting to waste no time as they remained on the subject, Fox began to question him further.

"In that case, did you also clean off the desks?" Fox asked, to which Falcon silently nodded. "It would have been odd if only one desk was clean compared to the others in the room. Of course, if you had left B2 and headed straight for the auditorium, you would have had no clue the other rooms were also covered in dust."

"Did you know Fox was in one of the lockers?" Robin asked immediately after Fox had finished, catching both of them off guard. Falcon finally looked up, his face almost lost completely, but he shook his head.

"I had no clue. When I woke up, it was just me and Falco. That's why I acted quickly, I thought I was alone and would have time to hide the body before somebody else came into the room," Falcon replied, his voice slowly coming back to him. "In fact, I'm starting to think I was set up, just so I would be the most obvious suspect!"

"If you stumbled across Fox, were you going to kill him as well?" Samus asked, her voice still full of ice. Falcon jumped backwards slightly, immediately shaking his head.

"T-That's no fair! That's one loaded as hell question!" he shouted back at her. "No matter how I answer, you're gonna grill me all the same!"

"Maybe your guilty conscious is starting to weigh on you," Pit asked curiously, his hand on his chin, his eyebrow cocked. "That sorta stuff was common back where I'm from, except, well I guess it was a _literal_ weight being used..." Robin sighed and rubbed her forehead as a slight snicker came from Lucina's mouth, a smile forming back on her face. Pit noticed but quickly looked away, a dumb grin forming on his face as he rubbed his head once again.

"Anyways, it is starting to become apparent that you might have been set up," Robin said, each of them now showing a bit of confusion or worry on their faces. "In fact, the most obvious piece of evidence being that you didn't receive the first person perk."

"Now hold on, when did we decide that?!" Bowser retorted, his nostrils flaring. "I was under the impression that **HE** was the first one awake!"

"Mr. Falcon was the first one down the hallway," Corrin replied hurriedly, hurt still apparent in her expression. "Afterwards, it was him, myself and Lucas that entered the auditorium first!"

"Surely the-a first person awake would-a be one of-a those three," Luigi replied as well, cowering almost immediately afterwards as he saw several faces turn towards him. Fox however was not one of them, as he instead was lost in thought once more. _While that may be true that they were the first ones in, it doesn't necessarily mean it was one of them who received the first person perk. In fact.._

"If it really was Lucas or Corrin, it might've been difficult for one of them to receive the perk since they were stuck in the maintenance closet," Fox said aloud, the chattering ceasing. He glanced over towards Lucas, a sort of urge overcoming him. Fox noticed Lucas looking back towards him and nodded, almost as if he was confirming Fox's statement. "I don't recall there being a monitor in there. Which means it could have been Falcon, or-"

"Someone else entirely," Robin cut in. "We can't assume that Falcon had received the perk simply because he was the first one in the auditorium. In fact, it seems that the more deceptive route would be to wait for others to enter the auditorium first, so that you could have appeared to have awoken much later than the rest."

"This culprit is quite cunning. They went through the trouble of planning the murder, framing somebody else AND preparing the perfect alibi," Dark Pit snickered. "We're working with somebody quite dangerous indeed."

"But.. now the problem arises that we don't have any evidence that would reveal us to who actually woke up first," Peach said, her voice full of concern. "Most of the evidence we gathered pointed to Falcon as the culprit, but if you say it wasn't him, then.."

"Unless we're at 100% certainty, we cannot convict someone as the blackened," Robin replied. "We would be at a disadvantage if we simply voted for the first person most suspicious." Fox scratched his head, the wheels in his head turning several times over trying to connect the pieces. _Something isn't right, there's just a big empty space between where everything would connect at... I can't seem to figure out what it is though! And if I can't, then I won't be able to face him..._

"This 'cheat sheet'," Zelda asked, everyone's attention returning now. "I believe we discovered it to have been removed from the classroom marked B2. Could we discuss this now? It might aid our search for the potential culprit." _Ah, of course!_ _If we can figure out who was the first one to return to the room after me, it might link who the culprit is!_

"That's right! Fox mentioned he remembered seeing writing on the wall when he first woke up, but it was missing when we were all in room B2!" Pit exclaimed.

"Then the culprit returned to the scene of the crime and wiped away any evidence of his presence," Bowser replied. "But when?"

"It had to have been between us arriving in the auditorium and Robin discovering Fox in B2," Lucina chimed in, her confidence restored. "I can't recall who all was missing during that time, but with over half of us exploring the rooms and searching for you, it could've been any of us-"

"Aside from myself, Samus, and Bowser," Zelda replied quickly. "After the initial wave of you all left, a few others followed in line. We remained in the auditorium until Pit returned to inform us of Fox's status."

"Wario was taking watch in the hallway while we split up and explored the building," Falcon said, his face no longer hiding. While other's seemed hesitant to listen, they did so nonetheless. "Hey champ, you happen to remember seeing who all entered?"

Wario cackled in response, much to Falcon's dismay. "Of course! Ah, but one thing! Wario _perhaps_ doesn't rememba' who, but also Wario _perhaps_ doesn't want-a to tell you-a who!" Falcon smacked his helmet, groaning sounding throughout the rest of the room by the others as Wario remained blissfully unaware of their annoyance.

"Great decision on who to keep watch.." Pit muttered. Wario continued to cackle as Robin spoke up now.

"That wouldn't have mattered as it was obvious which room we needed to head towards," she said, her eyes shut now. "I was the first one that found Fox, with Pit and Lucina following behind me immediately afterwards. There was nobody in the room before us, nor did any of us notice one another near the board."

"Then it happened before everybody had entered the auditorium," Falcon replied.

Bowser grumbled, his head shaking fiercely as he smacked one of his massive hands onto the small podium. "You must've been deaf or ignorin' us earlier when we said how girlie, Fox and I sat in the room for a while before meetin' the rest of you. There was nobody else that we ran across when comin' in, which means it had to have been one of you three when you entered the room!"

"Or it was Fox himself," Dark Pit chimed in.

Several pauses were made as soft murmurs were heard, those several seconds feeling like minutes as Fox felt the attention of them all turning to him now. _They're right, maybe I did erase the board without realizing it... it couldn't have been anyone else..._ His hands began to tremble as he gripped the podium tightly, squeezing it as if to press any truth out of it and into him. He felt the urge to begin pleading with himself, trying to resolve any issue of doubt that was left in him, but he failed to as he couldn't figure out how else it could've happened.

Fox's train of thought was broken though as he noticed Pikachu whimpering at him, his attention turning towards the yellow mouse. Pikachu jumped up and down, and after noticing it grabbed Fox's attention, pointed towards Luigi, then towards Peach. _What are you trying to tell me?_ Pikachu continued to point towards Peach, with Fox staring at it confused. _Wait... back at the entryway, oh right! Of course, thank you!_

"There is one more thing I need to go over," Fox exclaimed, silencing the room once more. His attention turned towards both Luigi and Peach now. "Luigi, you stated your group had entered the auditorium after Falcon, Corrin, and Lucas, correct?" Luigi paused, glancing over at Peach, before returning towards Fox, his head slowly nodding. "In that case, there were at least six of you when you had entered. However, assuming Robin, Dark Pit, and Pikachu arrived after Luigi's group, when Peach's grouped arrived, several people were missing."

"They-a were exploring the-a entryway..." Luigi whimpered, his body shaking once more. Fox nodded his head, continuing his inquiry.

"And Peach, if I recall, you stated that we arrived around five minutes after you all did?" Peach responded with a nod of her own, confirming Fox's suspicions. _Then.. I was right all along. I have to tie this all together now.._ Fox told himself, breathing in deeply. His mind was racing as fast as his heart was, but he knew what had to be done. If they were to survive, if he was to avenge his friend, he had to **do** **it**.

"Robin. You were the one to receive the first person perk, weren't you?" Fox said, those words drifting among all of them, almost as if they had been hit by a bat. Silence followed his words, and Fox's chest shook harshly, his breathing attempting to calm him down. Lucina's eyes were wide with shock, and Peach held her hand over her mouth, almost in incredible disbelief. "Now, before we can confirm this, we have to be 100% positive, and I'm sure I can back my claim up."

"Very well then," Robin replied calmly, her arms crossed. "What evidence do you have?"

Fox nodded his head, ready to begin his summary. "You were one of the people who had explored the entryway. During that time, you discovered something that admittedly took me way too long to realize. Down the hallway from the main door, underneath the grand staircase, was a door that lead through to another hallway I imagine. That hallway connects to the **B1** door. Falcon, can you confirm this?"

Falcon looked at Fox surprisingly, but shook off his stunned expression as he spoke up. "Yeah, that's right! While exploring the rooms, I ended up going through that door and noticed it led to a much larger hallway. After returning to the entryway, I wanted to confirm my theory, and it turns out I was right on the mark."

"Robin discovered this before any of us could because **she** received the first person perk!" Fox exclaimed, his hands now planted on the podium firmly. "She was the first one of us to wake up, which means she had plenty of time to explore the other rooms. This also allowed her to back track from the auditorium while the rest of us were still arriving. She slipped away, entered the B1 hallway, and crossed over into B2, erasing the cheat sheet information. It didn't occur to me that I failed to notice her when we first did arrive, but surely after the announcement from the headmaster, I spotted her in the back beside Dark Pit."

"She did arrive later, after the rest of you did," Dark Pit said coolly, furthering adding to the fire.

"While this may mean she's the culprit as well, I don't know what her motive was. I cannot say, but surely enough of it can be surmised simply from her remarks during the investigation and her knowledge of the first person perk," Fox continued. "She repeatedly removed blame or cause for concern from me when others would suspect, such as Pit. She seemed ready to begin the investigation and knew how dire it was which threw me completely off course. Her attempts at alleviating blame were simply to build trust up among us!"

Several chatter filled the room as Fox finished his argument, his breathing rapid as he caught his breath. Fists slammed on the podium, several of them enraged now, as Robin simply remained still, her arms still crossed and her eyes shut. _I just revealed the truth, but you still remain silent? Is it because you have nothing to say?!_ Fox began to tightened his own fists now, his eyes locked on Robin, waiting for her to make a move. Lucina averted her attention once more, her face full of sorrow, as did Lucas, tears falling from the boy's face. But almost like a sudden storm, Robin spoke up, her words catching them all off guard.

"I suppose this is my opportunity to defend myself against your claims," Robin replied, her voice still calm. "I'm hurt, but that doesn't mean I'm going to throw this trial away because of some vague emotions. First, I will admit to you that I did in fact receive the first person perk."

"What more is there to discuss? You just admitted to the crime!" Bowser shouted, Robin holding her hand up in response.

"I admitted to receiving the perk, not the crime. You're right Fox, I did wake up first, and because I had plenty of time on my hands, I explored the rest of the hallway. The first person perk didn't just entail information about this game, or just about the trial rules..." Robin paused briefly, looking upwards, almost expecting the headmaster to return and silence her, but nothing came, so she continued. "It held information about every single one of you."

 _W-What?!_ Fox thought to himself, his expression shocked, much like the rest of them.

"Now, it didn't explain anything such as the P.M. Project or why we were chosen or even why we were brought here. What it did tell me were mostly monotonous things, such as your names and what country you came from, but most importantly, it revealed an important piece of information about one of you. One that I knew I had to protect." Her words resounded throughout the room, and each of them, including Wario, sat in silence as they pondered just what that meant.

"I had to return to B2. I knew the information written on the board was too important to be revealed, as it not only had hints pertaining to the culprit, but towards the culprit's identity. I couldn't let that escape! So, I saw an opportunity as I noticed you all were the last to arrive. I slipped out when least suspected, and returned to the room after seeing you all enter the auditorium down the hall." Fox continued to stare in confusion, his head physically hurting now as he tried to understand what Robin was saying. _Argh, what the hell is going on? My head feels like its about to explode, and I don't know why!_

"I.. I still don't know if I should do this or not. I'm conflicted, because on the one hand, letting them go would mean the **death** of all of us," Robin said, her words now piercing each of them. Fox seemed oblivious as he continued to hold his head, each word of her's pounding against it.

 _ARGHH! What's going on?!_

"That's why I asked at the beginning whether we could purposely vote incorrectly. I needed to confirm what I was told from the first person perk. Because.. if it was true, then the decision I had to make..." Robin paused, showing what none of them ever thought they would see from her: weakness. She bit her lower lip, her eyes shut as her face frowned harshly, tears now dripping from her eyes. "I.. I still d-don't know if I can do this or not..."

"Robin.." Lucina said, her heart feeling heavy as she understood the gravity of her situation before her. They all remained silent now, as only the sounds of tears falling from Robin's eyes filled the room, her throat tightening as she choked out the next few words, heavier than anything she'd ever imagine.

* * *

 _Fox._

The pain left his head as he turned his attention towards Robin, the room completely enveloped in darkness besides the two of them. Fox's hands dropped to his sides as he stood up, Robin slowly approaching him. His face bore confusion still, but the pain from his head was gone, all that was left was the slow drill of truth returning to him. Robin smiled at him, her hand reaching out towards Fox's hand, griping it.

"I.. I don't know if I can do this. I need your help."

"What are you talking about? I'm completely lost!" Fox shouted back, almost furiously, but he remained calm as Robin squeezed his hand, her face still smiling.

"Your memories haven't fully returned, have they?" Robin asked, her eyes averting his now as he stared at her. "That's okay. I had cast a spell on you that stole away most of them, but I see now that might not have been the best decision, ha ha.."

"I'm still not sure what you're trying to tell me... Robin.." Fox replied slowly, tears now falling from his eyes as he knew his statement was a lie, the memories slowly coming back to him now.

"The mastermind behind this game, he did this to you!" Robin shouted, shutting her eyes. "But now, you have to face the truth. I was trying my hardest to protect you, but it looks like I won't be able to. I can't sacrifice the rest of them. You wouldn't appreciate that, I'm sure." Her face smiled once more, but tears poured out of her eyes, her voice croaking now. "B-But to do that, I need your help. Y-You have to finish this with me."

Fox started to speak once more, but he knew whatever it was he said would be meaningless. He knew exactly what he had to do now. The memories began to flood his mind, the same ones Robin had wiped away when she discovered him in room B2. Fox tried to pull away, he wanted to run as far as possible, to escape the truth he had been avoiding for so long, but Robin held his hand tightly. As he looked up towards her once more, she kept smiling, her face covered in tears now, as she slowly nodded her head. Fox replied with his own, as he knew he couldn't escape the truth any longer.

"Okay Robin. I'm ready," he said, smiling. "Before we go though, promise me something.."

 _Don't worry, I'll carry on your will. I won't let your wish go ungranted,_

 _Fox..._

* * *

"Fox is the culprit."

Once again, the room was full of silence as Robin cleared her throat, her hand wiping away the tears off her face. _I have to do this, for everyone now!_ Robin told herself. _I can't let my emotions or feelings get in the way. I have to bring the culprit to justice!_ "Because I was the first one awake, I stumbled upon the crime moments after it happened. That's how I knew about the information on the board, how I knew that Falcon was originally in B2."

"B-B-But, w-wait a second!" Pit stammered out, his voice full of concern. "Fox has been leading us this whole time! You're telling us he deceived us?!"

"So the bastard had been playing us since the start!" Bowser shouted.

"And now he remains quiet, perhaps his own guilt is weighing his words down," Falcon sneered.

Lucina shook her head, slamming the podium in front of her. "It can't be true! Fox, please, say something!" she exclaimed. She watched as Fox remained motionless, his eyes fixated on the floor in front of him. "It... it can't be. I believed in you..." Robin now turned to glance towards Fox, her own face worried as he remained silent. Dark Pit however began to howl and cackle, wiping away his own tears from the amusement he felt from the situation.

"Bwahaha! You see?!" Dark Pit exclaimed joyously. "Clinging on to that word 'believe' is nothing but trouble! I've been trying to tell you that from the start!"

"Back off! It's not her fault!" Pit retorted, huffing and puffing now at Dark Pit.

"Fox.. say something.." Lucas whimpered, to which Fox finally raised his head, noticing even Pikachu now pouting as it slowly looked away. Fox breathed in slowly, his eyes returning to face Robin, his body appearing to come back to life after being in a stasis for so long.

"It's my turn to defend myself, I guess," Fox replied. "I don't seem to recall any evidence on your end outside of just claiming I was performing the crime myself." While Fox spoke, his words seemed oddly cold, most of them ignorant to it aside from Robin, Lucas, and Pikachu. "If this is your way of averting blame from yourself, then I highly doubt-"

"No, I do have evidence," Robin retorted. _Thank you Fox. I won't let this go to waste!_ "First, you claimed that you had been able to discover the pocket knife in room B7. It seems strange to me that you were able to locate it, especially after it was covered by Wario's scent."

Fox scoffed at her statement, shaking his head. "Pikachu was able to track it down easily. I simply took it with me afterwards."

"Strange then. That isn't how the story went originally!" Robin shouted back. "I clearly remember you stating that **you** had smelled it through his scent somehow, and then that **you** discovered it in the corner of the room. I also noticed something off about your statement that followed, how you were in a hurry to let us know that this somehow proved your innocence by declaring the murder had to of occurred before you awoke!"

Fox was taken aback now, his face scowling as he lowered his gaze, Robin continuing her assault. "I wasn't able to fully confirm this either at the time, but I noticed the cloth Pikachu had found in room B2 was a slightly different material than Falco's shirt. The larger piece definitely matched, but the smaller one came from you, didn't it!? You used the smaller piece to wipe the blood off the knife before tossing it in room B7!" Gasps were heard around the room as Robin crossed her arms, readying her next attack. "In fact, if you think I'm wrong, then prove it by removing your jacket and showing us your undershirt!"

"I.. I..." Fox stuttered over his words, his gaze failing to meet any of theirs as Robin refused to stop her barrage, readying herself to finish this trial.

"Very well then. I'll start from the beginning of this case and reveal everything that happened! I'll convince everyone that you are the culprit!" Robin breathed in deeply, closing her eyes only briefly as she focused her mind, regathering all the information of the case and preparing it for this conclusion.

"It began with me waking up before anyone else did, in room **B9**. As soon as I did, the monitor cut on, the headmaster speaking directly to me. With this, he granted me the **first person perk** , which explained various rules of the trial and the killing game, as well as information pertaining to each and every one of us. As I realized I had time before anyone else would wake up, I thought I'd explore the building for a while, trying to gain an understanding of the layout. While doing this, however, I caught a noise coming from one of the rooms down the hall.

I ran past two sleeping bodies, Lucina and Bowser, and peeked inside room **B2** , spotting the end of a murder: the culprit stabbing a pocket knife he had on him into the back of the sleeping victim, **Falco Lombardi**! Quickly, I rushed into the opposite door, **B1** , to avoid arousing attention as I watched the culprit step outside into the hallway. Afterwards, the culprit ducked into room **B7** and left shortly thereafter. I had no clue what he was doing at the time, but it's obvious now that he was dispatching the murder weapon.

I realized the 'room' I was in was actually a small hallway, and curiously, I followed it to the end, discovering that it lead to a much bigger hallway, and that lead to the entryway. Not wanting to waste time, I returned to door **B1** and watched to see if the culprit was still moving around. I snuck up to **B2** 's door and saw the culprit had vanished, but more importantly, there was writing on the black board in the room. I entered quickly, locating the culprit inside one of the lockers. I immediately cast a spell on him, stealing away his memories from the previous moments. Before I had a chance to erase the board, however, I heard movement, and saw **Douglass J. Falcon** now waking up. I dashed outside the room, seeing that he noticed the body of Falco beside him. Knowing how important it was to me to try and keep the culprit unknown, I had to erase that information off the board, but my opportunity wouldn't come until much later. For now, I returned to room **B9** and laid onto the desk, acting as though I had actually been asleep. I waited, and when the others in the room finally awoke, I too rose, the black board in **B2** still on my mind.

As we entered the auditorium, I noticed a door, and from that door realized it lead to the entryway, the very same one I saw earlier while exploring the hallway from **B1**. I suggested we should explore the building a bit more while we waited for the others to arrive, and many of you agreed, allowing me to slip away and return back to **B1** hallway. While there, I watched from outside as Bowser and Lucina fought each other, and then ultimately as the culprit arrived to intervene. From there, they bonded and eventually left, allowing me to return to **B2** to erase the board. Afterwards, I slipped back through the hallways, back into the auditorium, and took my place among the shadows, hoping that I could keep the culprit hidden. However, I'm afraid I can't at the price of everybody else's lives...

Fox McCloud!" Robin panted, resting a hand over her chest and her other hand on the podium. _There... it's done. It's all over now, Fox,_ Robin said to herself, a slight smile forming on her face. She would be alone in this, as the rest of them only stared in silence, still in disbelief over what they had just heard. As if expecting Fox to have his rebuttal, they waited and listened, but nothing came from him, as he remained standing, his body and motions that of a hollow soul. However, another noise did approach them, as a voice began speaking over the intercom once more, one that Robin had hoped not to hear again.

"Well done, all of you! That trial was quite magnificent!" the headmaster exclaimed, clapping heard from behind his words. "Now if you would, please place your vote on the screen in front of you. Once you all have locked them in, we shall see if the **blackened** or the **spotless** will prevail!" The podiums rumbled slightly, and suddenly the tops split in half, a screen revealing itself hidden underneath it. On that screen, several faces appeared, each face with a name right next to it. Each of the grudgingly pressed on it, afterwards waiting a brief second as the screen flashed, the words ' **THANK YOU** ' blinking at them now. After a brief moment, the screens went dark, and silence filled the room, as if the headmaster was hand counting each tally mark. After a short delay, the screens returned, the words to follow haunting many of them for the days to come.

' **FOX MCCLOUD HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY! CONGRATULATIONS!** '

The voice broke through once again, and each of them appeared not phased as their spirits had almost been broken by this revelation. "Congratulations indeed, especially to you, Ms. Robin! You had quite the stellar performance during this trial!" The headmaster chuckled, his voice booming throughout the room. "However, we are not yet finished! We must now proceed to the punishment for the blackened, in this case, Fox McCloud."

"W-Wait!" Peach cried out, dashing out from behind the podium towards the center of the room, her hand reaching upwards. "Before you do, please let us speak with him!"

After a brief pause, the voice came on once again. "Very well then. But not for too long, as I imagine each one of you are exhausted after today's events." Peach dismissed his words as she turned towards Fox, who still appeared as a lifeless shell, his eyes void of any signs of humanity. Lucina ran up to him and shook his body, tears falling from her eyes.

"Fox, answer us!" Lucina cried out, her hand smacking his face now, both out of anger and frustration. "Why! Why did you take your friend's life?!" Falcon approached her and placed a hand on her shoulder, Lucina flinging him off as she turned her head towards him, gritting her teeth and burrowing her eyebrows. Falcon gulped and stepped away, Pit now running up towards them, pouting.

"Lucina, that's enough!" he cried out, attempting to pull her away from the unresponsive Fox. "Let him be! We need to get going." As he tried to pull her away, Pit turned towards Robin, his face as furious as Lucina's. "Help me! All of this is **your fault** after all!" _It's my fault..?_ Robin thought to herself, shaking her head as she trotted over towards them. She grabbed one of Lucina's arms as Pit grabbed the other, and the two of them pulled her away as she kicked and screamed.

"Pathetic..." Dark Pit muttered, turning his gaze away from the rest of them.

"Will you not give us one last response before we are pulled apart?" Zelda asked, her voice shouting over them all, hoping Fox would respond.

"Leave him. He's finished with us," Bowser snorted, turning towards Robin now as his face scowled. "And **you**. You've got a lotta work to do to build up any trust with the rest of us again. You lost all of it during this damn trial, tellin' us you were helpin' him get away with murder! So we all could die!" Robin looked away, but her face frowned, his words reaching her.

"Pika.." Pikachu whined, nudging Robin gently as she looked down at him, a slight smile forming on her face as she pet the electric mouse. Robin looked around at the rest of them, seeing nothing but defeated faces, each of them affected by the outcome of the trial. That is, aside from few of them, such as Dark Pit and Samus who instead shook their heads, almost amused by the pity of the others. While Robin wanted to say something to them, she knew there wasn't much time left, and she turned towards Fox, stepping slowly towards him once again, her hand grabbing his.

"Fox. I hope you can hear me..." she said softly, whispering almost. "I will keep your promise, and I won't let your wish fade away. And, I promise to you that I will **avenge** you and Falco. I will stop the headmaster **and** the mastermind!"

Almost as if on cue, that dreadful voice began to speak once more, their time limit having been reached. "I hope you all got what you had wished for," he said, chuckling once more. "Then without further ado, it's punishment time! Let us begin the **execution**!" Before any of them could speak, a chain shot from the dark and wrapped around Fox's next, his body being yanked away as Robin tried to desperately hold on to him, however, her grip slipping as she cried out. His body vanished from them, crashing through the stained glass behind him, darkness enveloping him. Slowly, the chandelier receded into the ceiling, a large monitor taking it's place. On it, a scene appeared in front of them, one that horrified Robin, as words flashed over the screen several times.

 **The Great Duck Hunt Season!**

The image before them was of a grassy, almost two dimensional field, one that had various spots of tall grass dotting the field. A rifle appeared on screen, placing them in a first person perspective as they watched it take aim at the different spots of tall grass. As the rifle fired, ducks flew out from the grass, and that spot vanished. One by one, the rifle continued to fire at the spots of tall grass, several ducks flying wildly now as one brush remained, with it somebody inside. Fox slowly shook his head, his thoughts and consciousness returning him as he began to realize what was happening.

As the rifle shot, Fox quickly rolled out the way, the grass vanishing. He dashed back and forth, avoiding several more shots as they came blazing past him. More tall grass began to grow around the field, and Fox attempted to hide behind them, each one however disappearing in seconds as the rifle took aim and fired. One by one, bullets came piercing through his body, first his arms, then his legs. His movement slowed drastically as he gritted his teeth, blood spurting out of his mouth as he tried to run. He saw one last brush ahead of him, and desperation now filled his mind as he forced his body towards it, unaware of what awaited him.

His foot became snared by a bear trap as he screamed bloodily, his mind going blank. He panted, his vision blurring as he knew the end approached. He tried to turn his head back towards the rifle, towards the camera, hoping he could perhaps share a few last words before the end overcame him. As he opened his mouth however, the final bullet fired, and with it he was forever silenced as it crossed through his skull, his vision forever going dark before him. As if to mock the rest of them, a score appeared on the monitor, with the words ' **NEW HIGH SCORE!** ' taunting them.

As the monitor returned to the ceiling, the elevator doors behind them opened, and the lights came back on. Robin noticed now both the blue bird and the orange fox's stained glass windows were shattered and place in a stasis, as if to remind them of what transpired here today. They all stood in silence, and slowly, one by one, returned to the elevator, aside from Robin, Lucina, and Pit. Falcon stood outside, thinking of something to say to them, but he paused, shaking his head, instead entering the elevator. Pit hoisted Lucina up, walking her towards the elevator, casting one last glance towards Robin before stepping foot on it.

The machine began to screech and claw back upwards, and Robin continued to stand there briefly, before finally, falling to her knees, tears flooding her face. She clawed the ground beneath her, her nails chipping and the tips of her fingers bleeding as she gripped ever so tightly to the ground. Minutes passed, Robin's face full of snot and tears, her mind full of agony. Nearly an hour elapsed now, but between the falling tears and the coughing, she failed to notice footsteps approaching her, turning her head to now see Dark Pit and Pikachu beside her. She stood up quickly, wiping her face as Dark Pit shook his head.

"So? What do you plan to do now?" he asked, Pikachu looking at one another, blinking its eyes curiously. "Are you just gonna stay down here, crawl up into a ball and die?"

"W-What do you **care**!" she hissed at him, turning away, stepping back towards the podiums. She closed her eyes, picturing his face once more, his request to her repeating in her head. She knew what he was, and now, with him gone, it was up to her to fulfill this task. She sighed, wiping her face once again as she noticed Dark Pit standing in front of her.

"Just so you know, I don't care what happens to you. But, for him, he'd probably be furious at you if you decided to stay here for the rest of your life," he said, his face grinning. "Honestly, I think that'd be hilarious! After that show you put on-"

"Then let me prove you wrong," Robin replied, stepping towards the elevator, Pikachu following after her. "I'll carry on his wish. I have to." The cage doors opened and she entered, her gaze avoiding Dark Pit's as the doors shut, the machine now clawing upwards once more, Dark Pit now alone by himself. He snickered, shaking his head as he stood by the elevator, waiting for it to return once more.


	4. EVOLUTION

**.**

 **BORN OF THE DESIRE**

 **EVOLUTION**

* * *

Robin rubbed her eyes, clearing away the remaining tears from earlier as she stepped out of the elevator, Pikachu waddling besides her mimicking her actions. Between the two of them, the only difference was Pikachu yawning. Robin turned towards the small creature and drew an equally small smile, her eyes blinking softly.

"I'm not sure where to go from here. Maybe we should return to the classrooms?" Her question was shortly answered as a familiar voice sounded just down the stage from them, a head drooping as smoke puffed upwards slowly.

"The gate leading to the upstairs portion of the entryway's been opened," Falcon replied. He sat on the edge of the stage, his arms resting across his legs, the small butt of a cigarette in his hand. "Follow the hallway down to the lobby, it'll be a big open room with several doors. I'm pretty sure one of them's a cafeteria. Besides that, the immediate door to your right as you enter the lobby will be the dormitory."

"Oh, I see," Robin replied, her voice still appearing rattled. She held on tightly to one arm and stood briefly, her eyes wandering the stage, ignoring the body in front of her now rising. "And as for each room..."

"There'll be name plates on the doors," Falcon replied. "You should go get some rest, it's been a long day."

Robin nodded her head slowly, still clutching her arm. Pikachu looked towards her and began to nudge her softly, attempting to somehow revitalize the worn body. Its attempts seemed to keep coming short as she would begin to move forward, only to stop immediately, as if a large anchor was chained to her leg. Before long, her voice broke through the minutes of silence, Falcon still standing idly by the stage edge.

"Do... you hate me?" Her words seemed to have a spell on them as Falcon's body jumped slightly, his head turning to glance over towards her now, he himself unable to answer immediately as she continued. "Do you? You can't even bear to face me."

"You need to get some sleep kiddo," he replied, his head still slightly turned behind him but his gaze now pulling away from her.

"Is it true then? You despise me?"

"I really do think you should-"

"If you say you do I won't be upset. I just-" Before she could even continue, Falcon replied, this time the calm aura surrounding him gone as now rage fueled his words, the cigarette butt falling to the ground.

"Just **shut up**!" His words echoed against the dim walls of the auditorium, silence flooding the room, following his words as if to throw a blanket over them. He gripped his forehead as his helmet laid in his other hand, his brown hair exposed to the world before them. His body remained tensed for moments before releasing that stress, sighing. His hand clenched tightly, but stopped shortly as the calming aura from before reappeared. His helmet dropped to the ground, banging and clanking as he pulled another cigarette out from his pocket, the sound of fire flickering briefly following. His blue eyes darted from one corner of the auditorium to the other, his lips wrapped around the yellow end, smoke escaping through the gaps. Minutes drew on as Falcon cleared his throat, his feet tapping against the ground.

"I didn't mean to come off so... so aggressive. I'm sorry. But... I've gotta ask you something," His words were much gentler now, his face still turned away from Robin. "Were you going to place the murder on me? To save his life?" Another eon passed between them as she remained silent, but much to his surprise, a response came, one that caused his freshly lit cigarette to fall to the ground, his mouth held agape as his mind processed the answer, his eyes swelling with water. He briefly pondered if he should've kept it to himself, but that phased away quickly as his head drooped down, fighting back the pain his body held on to.

As silence gripped the room, Robin's footsteps broke it in beats, passing the other beaten body, heading off the stage and towards the entryway door. Pikachu followed closely, shooting glances back at the other, its own face full of sorrow. Falcon assured his face stayed turned away from her as she reached the door now, the sound of it opening and then shutting covering the sounds of pit-pattering against the wooden floor, dripping as if rain were welcoming itself inside their prison.

* * *

Robin rubbed her eyes, the brown pupils surrounded by red stains. Exhaustion filled both her body and mind, the temptation of sleep weighing heavily on her as she trudged along towards the location mentioned by Falcon. _Was I too forward with him?_ The thought entertained her mind as different scenarios played out, each of them starting with a different response. It almost appeared to her though that no matter what she would reply with, she would have no other way to avoid his question without being honest. _Honesty... it's the only thing I can follow if I want to gain their trust again. They have no reason to believe in me.._

"Pika?" Robin turned to face Pikachu who was pushing a small flap in a door, Robin noticing the name on the center of it belonging to the very same creature. While it still had a door handle and frame and height of a normal door, the only difference was that small flap allowing for it to crawl in and out.

"This must be your room," she said, smiling weakly. "Good thing it doesn't require you to actually open it, hah.." Pikachu blinked several times, frowning slightly as it nudged against Robin briefly, rubbing its head softly on her leg. She knelt down and rubbed its head, her mind floating away from this place and to somewhere completely different now, one that was accompanied by a soft breeze and people she could call her own...

* * *

A breeze coasted past the grassy field, long, wild pink hair waving in the wind after the surge. Brown eyes watched the lake far ahead, the water glistening with different kinds of sparkles, almost having the appearance of emeralds, the pine trees surrounding it giving it that very glow. The rock beneath her was warm from both the sun and her own body sitting there for quite some time now as she continued to watch the small ripples break over the lake as the breeze escaped past her. Even as footsteps began to approach her, she didn't pull away, her gaze fixated on the scene ahead of her, mouth slightly agape and eyes lost by the trance of the water.

After minutes passed of this intruder stepping next to her, sound returned as she realized a voice calling after her. She turned and saw a stoic face gazing ahead now along with her, his blue weary eyes locked on the lake ahead of them as well. His blue hair, while not as long as her own, swayed with the wind, giving it an even more messy look, as if he needed help with that. His silver shoulder pad shone brightly against the sun, the glare nearly blinding her had a cloud not covered the sun in time. As she blinked several times over, she noticed his eyes now looking back towards her, his tired face smiling at her.

"And what are you doing all the way out here, away from camp?" he asked, his voice as gruff as his appearance.

She turned back towards the lake, smiling softly, raising her head up towards the sky. "I was waiting for you."

"How would you know I'd come out this way?"

"Back at camp, Kellam mentioned you would come out here on patrol before heading to the main roads." Her voice sounded serious now as the man realized this as well, pulling himself up and straightening his back as he cleared his throat, ready to respond.

"Kellam? Who.. ah, nevermind that. You should know I'm only coming out here just to patrol the immediate surrounding area," he replied, scratching his head, but avoiding her gaze all the same. "And before you even say it, yes, I understand that it's too risky and that I need to be more careful. Yes, thank you _mother_." That last sneer must've caught on to something as she tensed briefly, he suddenly realizing his mistake all too late. As he gritted his teeth, expecting a harsh beating to follow, he was surprised to see her still seated and facing the sky.

"I don't say these things to nag you. As your tactician, it's my job to assure our victory by calculating any and all circumstances, planning for any possible course of action that would happen." She paused briefly, a finger twirling her pink hair around gently. Her eyes shut as she felt the wind press along her face, the cold balancing around the sun's beam on to it. "Even still, I can't seem to understand how if you already know about what I'm going to say to you, why-"

"Look," he responded, adjusting his body as he did. "I understand. Enemies could be lying in wait to try and assassinate me... But there could also be others who need my help! Many of the men in our army were passbyers or villagers that were under attack by bandits and outlaws! Had I not helped them, we wouldn't be where we are today. There's a war going on, and people are suffering. I can't... I can't ignore them. I won't."

"If that's the case, why not send your men to search for these _hapless_ _innocents_?!" She stood now, marching away a few feet from him as tension drew thick between them. _He doesn't understand the importance of his life... of his heritage! If we lose him.. if I..._

"Because."

That simple response caught her off guard as she paused, turning to face him as she curiously raised an eyebrow, expecting more to follow his words. When she realized he was finished, she shook her head, frowning.

"Because?"

More time passed between them as she waited for what felt like an eternity. Now he faced the sky above, his eyes shut, his mind searching for the appropriate answer. The anger that had previously filled her subsided as she felt calmer, the breeze soothing her mind. The sound of the wind carrying along the blades of grass filled her head with its melody, almost capturing her in it. Shadows of the clouds above passed over the two of them again and again, making evident the amount of time elapsing before a response escaped his lips.

"Because of you." He stood facing her now, his gruff face meeting her soft, younger face. His blue eyes rested on her brown eyes, both of them locked in each other's gaze. "If I hadn't been there- if Frederick alone had found you- would we have ever met?"

 _Chrom..._ She was lost from those words, unable to think of something to reply with, her mind racing for any possible solution. _You're right.._ "Probably not..." Those were all the words she could muster as her knees felt weak, the thought of their meeting never happening churning in her stomach, souring her mood. It was one situation that she had no desire to ever happen, one that as a tactician, she wouldn't even know how to remedy.

"You see? And it's not just you. It's everyone like you. I know going out there exposes me to danger, and I haven't always been careful. But it's a risk I'm willing to take in order to connect with these people. To forge bonds. To gain... their trust." _Trust. The one thing so hard to gain but so easy to lose..._ she thought to herself, looking away from him. He approached her and grabbed her hands gently, caressing them as he lowered his head. "These bonds between the villagers we've met, the world we've seen... Between me and the others... Between us."

"Chrom, I-"

"These bonds are the true strength of this army. Without them, we're lost." His words hit her harshly, but she didn't back away from them. Instead, she accepted them, and with it, she faced him, her eyes once more locked on his own. He shook his head, pulling away from her as she stood there stunned, confused at his actions. Before she could speak, he continued on. "This wasn't ever your war to fight. I dragged you into this mess. I.. I owe you an apology."

"I chose to fight it," she replied, moving towards him as his back remained turned from her. "You didn't make me do anything I wouldn't have done otherwise."

"It's just... all I've been thinking about is stopping Gangrel, no matter the cost. Even my own life would not have been too high a price to pay," he paused as he moved his hand to his face, rubbing his forehead. "It's been on my mind a lot lately. I've just been thinking about so many things."

"Don't claim to throw your life away so easily," she replied quickly. "You say it wouldn't have been too high of a price? For us it would be! Why would you not consider our feelings just after telling me how important these bonds are to you!" He remained silent even after her attacks, her face frowning as she stood, awaiting his response.

"I never want to let you go," he replied, her eyes widening as his words caught her off guard. "Does that make me selfish?" He chuckled softly as she remained frozen, unsure of what to say. He turned back towards her, his face smiling, brightened ever so more by the sun as the clouds escaped the sky, leaving only the two of them standing before one another in the grassy field. Her pink hair swayed in the wind, and her arms dropped to her sides, unable to act as she struggled to find any words to say to him, only after several minutes passing able to say anything.

"Let me be selfish, too. I would be with you, always."

 _Chrom.._

* * *

Robin's eyes widen as she gasped, flinging herself backwards. The mouse skittered briefly before rushing to her side, Robin now rubbing her head. _W-What was that... those memories... where did those come from!? How did I.. recognize that face...!_ Between her panting and gasping, she didn't notice footsteps running up towards her, seeing Lucina now at her side, her face worried.

"Robin! Are you okay?!" she cried out, kneeling beside her. Robin's body shook altogether, a chill overcoming her as she turned to face the other.

"Y-Yes, I think so... Lucina," she paused briefly, weighing the options before her as she continued on, "do you remember anything from your past?"

The blue haired duelist cocked her head sideways, shaking it. "Besides the little bits I told earlier, not really. Did you remember something?"

"I remembered a little bit, but it doesn't have anything to do with why we're here.. I think at least," Robin replied. _Surely it doesn't. That seemed to be a more.. intimate memory that I'd like to keep to myself. But, why did seeing her face... shock me?_ Lucina frowned, crossing her arms as she began to ponder to herself as well. Robin waved her hand dismissively towards Lucina, smiling. "I think it was just an odd case, nothing more. I'm going to head to my room now."

"Very well then. When you do return, there are a list of.. 'rules' that the headmaster left for us on our desks," Lucina began to walk away, turning back once more. "Oh, Pit mentioned we all should meet up in the dining room in the morning!"

Robin nodded her head, waving goodbye to her. _They've all probably gotten a good look around this floor while I was down there. I'll have to check it out tomorrow morning. For now..._ Robin looked around the large, circular room, noticing a first and second floor. The door leading into the dormitory was a type of mosaic glass, and starting from the right of it she noted names of the others. Each room seemed to alternate boy/girl, and turning back to her door she noted both Dark Pit to the left and then Falco to the right. Opposite of the door to the main lobby was another glass door, but with it being so dark, she couldn't see what was outside. Instead, she turned back towards her door.

Opening her door, she noticed that it wasn't locked at all, but her attention turned towards the interior of the room. While it was fairly simple, it was broken down as such: the first wall had only the door and a monitor screen above it. This would be the **west** wall. Left of it, the **north** wall, had a desk against it with a small indent going into the wall, several cloths matching Robin's own hanging inside it. The **east** wall had another door and next to that was a bed, one that was screaming for Robin to come rest on it. But not now. The **south** wall was only a nightstand and trash bin, a small clock with the time **03:54** on it.

 _It's already four A.M.._ Robin realized. As exhaustion overcame her, she fought against it as she moved towards the desk, noticing the note Lucina informed her about. She grabbed it and looked over it's contents, familiarizing herself with it:

 _Academy Rules_

 _-Rule #1- Attempting to exit through the main doors in the entryway will cause the bracelet on that person to react accordingly. To remove the bracelet, you must either find a key hidden away somewhere, have your heart stop beating, or graduate and walk._

 _-Rule #2- "Nighttime" is officially designated as the hours between 10:00 pm and 8:00 am. During this time, certain areas are off-limits, so please exercise caution._

 _-Rule #3- With minimal restrictions, you are free to explore the campus at your discretion._

 _-Rule #4- When a murder is committed in the academy, a class trial will be conducted. Room location will be marked on your bracelets, and a time limit will follow afterwards. Participation in this trial is mandatory for all surviving students._

 _-Rule #5- If the killer (hereinafter referred to as "the blackened") is correctly identified during the class trial, only the blackened will be punished for their crime._

 _-Rule #6- If the blackened is not exposed, they alone will graduate and walk, and all remaining students will be punished._

 _-Rule #7- If innocent students (hereinafter referred to as "the spotless") continue to survive class trials, the game will continue until only two students remain._

 _-Rule #8- Attempting to break into locked rooms is strictly prohibited._

 _-Rule #9- Additional school regulations may be added if necessary._

 _Until only two students remain?_ That specific line caught Robin off guard as she reviewed it again and again, almost expecting the words to change form after some time. _We're stuck in here until we're either dead or two of us are left.._ She glanced around the room once more and noticed a small camera positioned above the closet on the north wall. _The fact that our doors don't lock either is troubling. He's practically enticing us to commit murder on one another. But more specifically, why are we being referred to as students?_

Robin plopped down on to her bed and set the note down beside her, her eyes glued to the ceiling. While she wanted to immediately work on solving their circumstances, her body said otherwise as it sank into the mattress. _So much has happened today... We had no time to breath, but now we have to trust in one another and work towards finding a way out. Trust..._ She once again thought about that memory that had come back to her, and her mind stayed on that familiar face, her eyes eventually closing slowly, taking her to a deep slumber...

Her head shot upwards immediately, glancing around the room. Her chest still panting, she pulled herself off the bed and looked towards the clock, seeing it now say **8:57**. She shook her head as she realized she had fallen asleep, but something was still bugging her. _I heard somebody in here... Somebody was watching me._ She pushed her clothes aside and examined the closet thoroughly, making her way towards the door on the east wall. She took a deep breath and swung it open, noticing a bathroom inside. She stepped forward slowly, examining all corners and sides. _I can't keep my guard down even while I'm asleep.._

As she noticed nothing seemed out of the ordinary, she sighed, her body relaxing slightly. She turned the sink on and pulled her robe off, revealing a tan-white blouse underneath. Removing her gloves as well, she dipped her hands into the sink and splashed the cold water against her tired face, rejuvenating her mind and body alike. As she turned the faucet off, she paused momentarily, staring at her reflection in the mirror in front of her, water dripping off her nose and chin. Dark bags sat underneath her eyes and her hair was slightly a mess, Robin moving a hand towards one side and slowly running her fingers across her hair.

 _I need to go meet up with the others in the cafeteria._ After minutes of brushing her hair, she grabbed a towel and dried off her face. Placing her gloves and robe back on, she returned to her room and looked around once more. _Nothing seems to have been taken or moved. Strange... Maybe I was just imagining it._ She took one last look at her bed before brushing her hair back once more, exiting her room. Almost as if he was waiting on her, Dark Pit stood right outside her door, his arms crossed, an eyebrow cocked. Robin jumped back slightly, unsure as to why he would be there, but more importantly...

"Did you come into my room earlier?" she asked, her voice impatient. Dark Pit shook his head, his face scowling as if he were upset.

"No. I seriously hope you don't think I'd stoop that low," he replied. "I thought I'd let you know they're all having breakfast right now."

"You didn't join them?" Robin replied, observing his body now, as if she were expecting to find some kind of tell. "Or are you trying to play off as the reclusive one in our group?" Following that statement was a laugh from Dark Pit, who was grinning at her now, maliciousness covering his face almost.

"If you're trying to read me, have fun with that," he said casually, waving a hand in the air as he now turned around. "If you're trying to find the reclusive one, you should go check with Samus. She's the one giving us all the cold shoulder." As he left, Robin stood briefly, thinking to herself. _Even if he was the one to have been watching me, why..?_ She shrugged it off and followed the same route, exiting the dormitory and entering the main lobby room. She didn't pay much attention to the layout earlier as she was just wanting to reach her bed as soon as possible. She took note of the sign hanging near the entrance leading back to the entryway, reading **LIVING QUARTERS**.

As she looked around, she saw other rooms, each of them labeled, respectively, **TRASH** , **STORAGE** , **LAUNDRY** , and finally **DINING**. _Obviously the room labeled dining should be where they're all at right now,_ Robin thought to herself, making a mental note to visit the other rooms later on. As she opened the doors leading into the dining room, a loud noise and welcoming sight greeted her: Bowser and Wario stood on top of one of the dining tables, both of them making growling sounds at one another. Peach and Corrin stood on the side of the table, waving their hands frantically and shouting at them, with everyone else standing a ways off from them, some of them watching and others cheering on the violence.

"P-Please stop this you two!" Peach cried out, ducking as various objects were launched off the table by the two of them.

"Yes, please stop!" Corrin joined in, following the same actions as Peach. "Mr. Bowser, Mr. Wario, if you wish to battle each other to the death, there's a dojo down the hall! That seems more suitable for something like this-" Her words were cut off as Peach smacked Corrin, her face puffed up and pouting.

"Don't encourage them!" she retorted, turning back towards the two of them, once again ducking from the various items flying off.

Robin approached Lucina who was standing near the entrance, confused at what she was witnessing. "What's going on..?"

"Oh, Robin!" Lucina piped up cheerfully, glancing back at the two before responding. "It seems that Bowser took Wario's plate of food, and now Wario can't see straight and one thing lead to another and..." A loud CRASH sounded as the two of them quickly turned back towards the center of the room, witnessing the dining table now split in two as Wario laid on top of Bowser, appearing to have slammed him down into it.

"WA-HAHAHA!" Wario cried out, his arms flexing, standing triumphantly on top of Bowser. "Wario doesn't-a mess around-a, big goblin!" Zelda came running out of a door on the opposite side of the room, a plate of food in her hands, but as she entered, she realized the fighting was already over. She frowned and shook her head, approaching the two.

"I asked you to give me a few minutes to prepare another plate for you, Wario," Zelda said, her voice obviously upset. She had a plate of fries and a large, double stacked burger, all of it drenched with ketchup. Wario turned and snatched it up immediately, cackling as he downed the food and plate whole, Zelda appearing disturbed now.

"A victory prize-a for Wario!" He licked his fingers and placed a hand on his belly, a visible cloud shooting out of his mouth as he sighed in relief. "Wario gotta say, for someone who'sa never cooked this stuff before, you're-a pretty damn good at it!"

Zelda shook her head in response. "It was fairly simple. The kitchen back there has several hundreds of supplies and all kinds of equipment suited for culinary use, as well as a giant book with all kinds of recipes, which is where I pulled your meal from." She paused briefly, frowning now. "I really do wish you would have waited for me to return instead of resorting to violence."

"Kept the rest of us occupied at least," Falcon replied, sitting back on a chair. "I've gonna agree with ole food gobbler though, you're cookin' is pretty phenomenal!"

Robin examined the rest of the room, watching Peach now tend to the downed Bowser in the middle of the table, Corrin, Lucas, and Pikachu all working on cleaning up the mess around them. She turned back towards Lucina, a smile on her face. "It's good to see everyone so lively at least, especially after the day we had yesterday."

Lucina didn't turn towards her, her response less enthusiastic than Robin's. "We're trying to forget what happened yesterday. Most of us still realize the reality of our situation, but moments like these do help with trying to move forward." Pit moved up towards the two of them, his face attempting to smile at them after what just occurred.

"That was something, huh," he remarked, his gaze mostly on Lucina, almost as if he was trying to ignore Robin who immediately noticed. "Hopefully we can get back to eating. Oh, hey Robin..." Pit waved weakly at her before turning away, walking back towards the center table. He turned once more towards Lucina, waving for her. Lucina turned towards Robin and smiled, Robin shrugging her shoulders as Lucina left. _I suppose_ _it'll take a bit more effort to move on for some of us..._

Not feeling an appetite, Robin left the dining room and entered the main lobby once more, glancing around. _Corrin mentioned a dojo... there must be a hallway somewhere?_ Not longer after, Robin noticed the very said hallway, venturing down into it. On the other end was another lobby, this one not as large. Only two doors sat opposite one another, a **Dojo** and **Basement** , with a staircase between the two, a metal gate over it though. _Wait, the basement? Aren't we on the second floor?_

"The same thought came over my head when I saw it," a voice called out, Robin turning hurriedly to greet it. She saw Falcon now approaching her and she turned back towards the door, pondering to herself. "So? Gonna open it?"

"Look, about last night," Robin began before being cut off by Falcon.

"Don't start with that again. I'm not upset over any of it and I don't want you to be either," he replied, reaching her side now. "If we hold grudges against one another, it's gonna make surviving this game all that much harder."

 _He's right. If we expect to find a way out of here, we have to work together..._ "Have you been down there yet?" Robin asked.

"I have, and it's just a staircase that'll take us all the way to the bottom floor. There, we'll find our basement and more likely than not, one of our friends," Falcon replied, with Robin staring at him curiously. "Come on." Falcon moved forward and opened the door, and sure enough a long stair way awaited them. They descended down and after a few minutes, they finally reached another door, the sound of metal banging against one another appearing on the other side. Falcon opened that door as well and they walked in, a smaller figure jumping up and shrieking.

"AHH!" Luigi cried out, dropping his tools as he jumped backwards into more tools, those also falling over. Falcon shook his head as he tried to calm him down, with Robin looking around the room. She noticed two other doors, one labeled **ENTRYWAY** and the other labeled **BOILER**. _The hallway opposite the one to the classrooms must lead to here,_ she thought to herself. Besides the single hanging light above, the room was dim, with several dusty crates lining the corners, and then several gadgets and tools surrounding the center of the room. As she stepped forward, the wooden boards of the floor creaked and moaned, almost as if the planks have been there for quite some time.

"Luigi here made this place his workshop," Falcon said, pulling him up at the same time. "Mentioned his room was too small to work in, so he needed to find someplace else."

"S-Samus found-a this room for me," Luigi replied, grabbing his fallen equipment. "It'sa perfect! Won't cause-a too much noise and bother the others-a, and there was already a whole lotta stuff to work with." Robin looked at the nearest crate next to Luigi and spotted several bits and pieces of scrap metal along with a glass jar full of some type of powder. Her train of thought was broken as Luigi stuffed other pieces of scrap into that same crate, and she turned towards him now, smiling.

"What were you working on?" Robin asked curiously.

"Ah, nothing too-a big yet," Luigi replied. "Mostly trying to-a see what I can do with these things. Like make a way-a out for us!" A slight hurrah followed his statement as he fist bumped the air, immediately retreating as he shyly wrapped both hands behind his back, kicking his leg slightly. "A-Ah, of course it'sa gonna take some time."

"So long as there's a solution in the works, I'm not worried," Falcon replied nonchalantly, a grin on his face. "Looking at how lively everyone was in the dining hall gave me hope, ya know?"

"Hope?" Robin asked.

Falcon nodded his head, and Luigi too turned to face him now as he continued. "Hope in all of us! We won't let this asshole beat us! We just don't have to play his game."

"Assuming all of us are on board," Robin replied quickly. Falcon crossed his arms and frowned, Luigi looking away from both of them now. "Dark Pit made it sound like Samus is keeping her distance from everyone else." _And Dark Pit himself is of suspicion as well. What is he planning?_

"S-She's definitely being-a cold to the rest-a us, but she's trying to-a help as well!" Luigi replied, almost with confidence behind his words.

"She's scouting the floors for us and creating a map that we can use," Falcon chimed in. "I think it's more so Dark Pit is trying to divert our attention from his own actions."

"Then we'll keep an eye on both of them, just to be certain," Robin replied, making her way towards the entryway door. "I'm going to return to my room." She waved to the both of them, entering through the door and into a hallway lined with stairs. This one was much shorter than the previous one, and after only a few moments, she emerged out into a much larger hallway, immediately recognizing it to be the entryway. Confirming the layout, she walked outwards and once more noted the door leading to the boiler room at the end of the hall, observing the same mosaic glass used on the dormitory door.

With nothing more of interest, Robin returned upstairs and into the main lobby, seeing Lucas, Corrin, and Pikachu all standing outside the dining, each of them looking worn down. Robin approached them and was immediately greeted by Corrin, with Pikachu running up to her and nuzzling her leg. Lucas waved his hand weakly, smiling.

"Hello Ms. Robin!" Corrin exclaimed, panting between words it seemed.

"Was it tiring getting the mess cleaned up in there?" Robin asked, smiling. All three of them immediately nodded their heads, frowning, to which Robin replied with a soft giggle. "I'm sorry that I didn't help out at all. I had some things I needed to check out."

"That's fine.. probably would have just gotten in the way..." Lucas muttered, with Corrin smacking his back, replying with a sheepish grin on her face and a fake laugh. Robin tried to ignore the boy's statement, but his words cut into her just as Pit's did earlier. She knew many of them still held grudges for what happened the other day.

"He does not mean that of course!" Corrin replied hurriedly. "He is just worn out by the day's work, just like the two of us, right Pikachu?" Pikachu replied by nodding its head several times. "What were you observing anyways, Ms. Robin?"

"I wanted to get my eyes on the rest of the building available to us," Robin replied. She brought a finger up to her head and tapped the side of it. "Knowledge is a powerful tool, especially in our circumstances. I figured most of you had already gone exploring last night."

"Ah, not quite," Corrin replied, a finger on her lip now, her head slightly cocked sideways. "Several doors would have words floating in front of them that read ' **CLOSED** ', so we were unable to actually go inside of them."

"Were they locked though?" Robin asked. Corrin paused for a moment, before shrugging her shoulders.

"I am actually unsure. We did not attempt to open any of the doors, as I did not know if we could reach past those... floating.. magical words." Corrin tried to mimic the letters by drawing them in the air with her fingers, but all that happened instead was Robin giggling slightly at her act, to which Corrin stopped and then giggled herself.

"No worries," Robin said, clearing her throat, "one of the rules stated certain areas were off-limits during nighttime anyways, so I assume that any of them reading 'closed' would be such."

"Good point!" Corrin exclaimed, clasping her hands together. "Lucas and I are going to explore a little bit more, in case you wished to accompany us."

Robin glanced over at Lucas who's face was still frowning, and she smiled softly, shaking her head. "I'm actually a bit tired still, I didn't sleep all that well last night. You guys go on ahead and I'll meet up with you later."

"Very well then, Ms. Robin," Corrin bowed her head slightly and turned towards Lucas, smiling. The two of them began to walk off, and Pikachu paused, glancing between the two. Robin waved her hand and looked towards the two of them, with Pikachu nodding its own head, following after them. Robin stretched her arms out, a yawn escaping her mouth. _I wasn't lying... I am fairly exhausted still. I should probably try and talk to the others, but I don't think there's any rush at the moment._ After that thought, Robin returned to the dormitory, oblivious to a pair of eyes watching her from a distance.

Inside the dormitory, Robin immediately noticed Peach, Lucina, and Pit on the opposite side of her, the former exchanging words with the latter two before entering a room. Robin tried to ignore them and walk directly towards her room, but was stopped as she heard her name being called out, turning to face Lucina running after her. She stopped and smiled at the blue haired girl as she approached her, Pit following behind but keeping a slight distance.

"Good to see you again Robin!" Lucina chimed, grinning. "Have you figured anything out about those memories that were bugging you yesterday?"

"Not a clue, unfortunately," Robin replied, her arms crossed. "I'm still tired, so I was planning to get a bit more sleep." As she began to try and step away, Lucina grabbed her arm, and Robin turned back towards her, Lucina's face entirely serious now.

"If anything's bothering you, feel free to come and talk with us," Lucina said, her voice calm and reassuring almost. "We've got to work together if we're going to survive, and that means not shying away from one another, right **Pit**?"

As if on cue, Lucina elbowed Pit, who jolted up, nodding his head. "A-Ah, right! Of course! And about earlier, sorry for acting weird towards you. I'm just still a bit rattled from yesterday, ya know?"

Robin nodded her head, smiling. "I understand. I'll be in my room for a while." They said their goodbyes and Robin entered her room, a sigh of relief escaping her mouth, her body plopping onto her mattress. Within seconds, her eyes shut, and darkness enveloped her mind, taking her away from the sunless room. Ticking from the clock above sounded over and over, and several minutes turned into hours as Robin remained in a deep slumber.

* * *

 _Day Three, 21XX_

A beeping noise, followed by a clicking sound filled the room, Robin slowly opening her eyes. She groaned, turning her attention to the monitor screen above the door, noticing the headmaster's face on it. Forcing herself up, she pulled her body against the wall beside the bed, one eye cocked opened and observing the screen.

"Good morning students. It is day three, and with that I hope you all enjoyed yesterday. It was amusing watching each of you act along with one another, almost sad, really. Regardless, you had been given time to acclimate, and thus we must resume our game." Robin's eyes lowered and scornfully watched the screen, anger rising through her body. _Just one day, all we had was one day before we'd have to deal with you again..._

"Many of you told one another that you had no intention to kill your fellow classmates, and I thought it was quite motivating. In fact, I would like to give each and every one of you a bit more motivation! Atop each desk will be a tablet that will play a certain video. I highly encourage you all to view them." Robin glanced over at her desk and noticed the very said item, hopping over and grabbing it. On it was a blank screen, with one button on the side, Robin curiously staring at it.

"With that said, I will leave you all to the rest of your wonderful day. After today, you can expect my morning announcements at 8:00 am, with a warning announcement notifying the time at 10:00 pm. Goodbye." The screen clicked off, and Robin glanced back down at the device in front of her, her hands running along its edge. She finally pressed the button jutting out from the side, and the screen came to life, nearly causing her to jump backwards.

" **Robin**..." Her face froze as her eyes, widening in disbelief, locked onto the face shown on it. She immediately pressed the same button and shut the screen off, panting. Her body remained frozen for several minutes, unable to face what she had just witnessed on the screen. _I-It's impossible..! What the hell is this?!_ She threw the tablet against the wall, the device crashing and falling to the floor. Her chest continued to rise and fall, her eyes still wide, but now with rage. "What's the meaning of **this**?!" she cried out, her fists clenched tightly.

Her head turned towards her door as she heard a knock, the door flying open just moments afterwards. Lucina came bursting into the room, her own face in disbelief. She shook her head and ran up towards Robin, who now began to fall towards the floor, her head feeling light. Lucina caught her and held her up, her arms wrapped around Robin tightly.

"Robin, are you okay?!" Lucina cried out. "Who did you see?"

 _Who...?_ "How do you know I saw a person?" Robin asked, her voice weak.

"Several.. Several of them did." Lucina replied, lowering Robin to the ground now. "As soon as the announcement concluded, I left my room as I didn't know what item the headmaster was referring to. But it wasn't long before others came out, and each of them furious. Some of them still had those things in their hands, and some of the others revealed what they saw.. They all said a name of a person. Somebody-"

"Close to us..." Robin replied. "I didn't realize what that memory was the other day, but now, after seeing that face... I remember who he was, and why he was so important to me."

"I'm sorry Robin.. I'm sure whatever magic the headmaster used, it was only to deceive us! To get us to feel angry towards one another!" Lucina exclaimed, her fists clenched now.

Robin pulled herself back up, sitting back on her bed, her head lowered. "You said you didn't watch the video yet, correct?" Lucina nodded her head, Robin sighing in relief. "Good, don't. You're correct, their purpose is simply to motivate us to kill one another and try to escape. Whoever you see on that screen, it's only to make you feel distrust towards the rest of us."

"How could I, after the day we had yesterday," Lucina replied, her gaze turned away now. "It felt nice, acting as friends towards one another. Was... was it all really just an act we were putting on?"

"His words are poison. His only goal is to watch us flounder and fall," Robin said reassuringly. "Whatever happens, we need to stay united. He's going to try any and everything to break us apart and get us to start this killing game over and over."

"So everyone feels that killing is wrong," a voice said from the doorway, both Robin and Lucina turning to face Dark Pit now. "But why is that?"

"W-When did you decide to-" Lucina began to say before Dark Pit cut her off.

"I'm right next door to Robin, and after hearing you two shout, I thought I'd come over and investigate. After all, wouldn't it have been amazing to walk into a crime scene?" His words were vicious and he had a mischievous grin on his face. "But back to my question, why is killing wrong?"

"What?!" Lucina shouted back, shaking her head. Robin simply watched, her eyes locked on Dark Pit.

"Of course I know it to be against various culture's laws. But laws are simply rules people decide upon," he continued. "This is a space removed from those rules. Therefore, we've no need to follow them."

"It's just wrong!" Lucina retorted, stomping towards him. "Taking another person's life? What kind of cruel mind must you have to begin to think it's okay?!"

"Even if it is to survive?" Dark Pit turned away and opened the door. "Somebody I once knew remarked on how much they enjoyed observing the beauty of humanity and the depths of its sins... I thought it was some kind of junk to give her an excuse for her actions, but now I'm starting to see what she meant." He exited the room and left Lucina and Robin alone once more. Lucina sighed loudly, tapping her foot repeatedly on the floor.

"That jerk! What the heck does he mean by that?!" Lucina exclaimed, shaking her head. "I'm going to go check on the others."

"I'll be here for a bit longer. I've got some things I want to mull over," Robin replied. Lucina nodded her head and left the room, Robin now sighing as well. _He's not completely wrong. I've taken several lives in battles, and judging Lucina's attire, she must have as well. What's the difference between a nameless face and somebody we've known only for a recent while?_ Robin paused, thinking over what she said, blinking several times over. _How did I.. remember this? The battles I've fought in... why is this coming back to me now?_

An idea popped into her head, and determined to see this out, Robin stood and exited her room, searching for the others. She immediately bumped into Pit, who too seemed to be scrambling around, his face solemn. He blinked several times, turning towards Robin. "Oh, hi Robin.."

"Everything okay?" she replied, concern in her words.

"I.. I don't really know what to think right now. Seeing Lady Palutena made me realize I'm wasting so much time in here! I've got to-"

"Don't fall for his trap," Robin said, cutting him off. Her words bounced around in Pit's mind briefly before he snapped back to reality, color coming back to his face as well as Robin continued. "His goal was to motivate us to continue his game. Destroy your tablet, let the others know the same thing!" Pit nodded his head and ran off, with Robin thinking to herself. _This must've triggered some kind of memory in each of them to make them remember exactly why that person is so important to them.. important enough to encourage them to kill somebody else to escape._

The rest of the day involved each and every one of them becoming weary of one another, avoiding as many interactions as possible. Distrust filled their minds, and slowly that very bond they tried to build back up slowly broke apart as each day drew on..

* * *

 _Day Five, 21XX_

Robin was the first to arrive outside the dining room, noticing the ' **CLOSED** ' words floating in front of the door, the very same words Lucina had mentioned the other day. Remembering the time stating **7:50** before she left her room, she waited with anticipation for the morning announcement to begin, along with the hope that others would join her here soon. _Hopefully they'll arrive shortly. We can't let him get to us.._ Surprisingly, she heard footsteps behind her, and she turned to face somebody unexpected.

"Samus?" Robin said, blinking her eyes several times over as the blonde woman walked towards her, a large, rolled up paper in her hand.

"Yeah?" She replied coolly, cocking her head sideways. "Something wrong?"

"Oh, nothing. I just haven't seen you for a few days now," Robin replied, smiling. "I heard you were working on a project?"

"Right, this," Samus handed the paper over to Robin, who grabbed it and opened it up immediately. Inside, a large diagram covered the sheet, detailing each floor, each room, and the directions for each location as well. Robin marveled over it, impressed, and noted the locked icons on two sets on stairs, one set more than she had noticed before.

"This is incredible work," Robin said, looking over each room in great detail.

"Thanks, glad to hear. You should hang on to it and get a feel for the building," Samus replied, waving a hand now. "You're our brains, after all. If something happens, it'd be helpful for you to know the layout of what we're working with." Before Robin could reply, Samus had already left, returning to the dormitory now. _That's probably the first time I've seen Samus head towards her room. I didn't even think she was using it at all..._

Following that thought, the monitor screen began to beep, and a clicking sound turned it on, the headmaster's face once again appearing. "Good morning students. It is 8:00 am, and nighttime is officially over." _Another short announcement then,_ Robin thought to herself, the screen clicking back off. _He must be biding his time, waiting for one of us to fall into his trap. Which speaking of, I didn't even think to ask Samus if she's seen her video yet..._

Footsteps sounded outside the dormitory doors, and Robin turned and greeted several familiar faces: Pit, Lucina, Corrin, Lucas, Pikachu, and Zelda all entered the main lobby, with Lucina waving towards Robin. As they entered the dining room, Peach and Wario now left the dormitory, following suit. Robin waited a few more moments, hoping more would follow, but it seemed that was it for now. While slightly upset, she shook her head, entering the dining room as well.

* * *

After breakfast, Robin made it her priority to check up on the others. She first headed out towards the basement, remembering that's where Luigi set up his new workshop. _Perhaps he's been busy at work on some kind of project of his own,_ she told herself. Descending the steps, she knocked once on the basement door before entering, seeing the green hatted man hard at work. He paused and looked up at her, bags underneath his eyes as he greeted her softly.

"Luigi, have you been here all this time?" Robin asked worriedly. Luigi nodded his head, turning back to his work.

"I gotta," he replied weakly. "If I can't-a help myself or the-a princess, my brother... he's.." He paused, his hands hovering, unable to move. Robin looked at his hands and noticed the device underneath them, a strange grey colored item, rectangle in shape, with several small black squares on one end, one of the squares red however. A clear case sat in the middle of the device, and a dotted square piece sat on the topside of it. She turned her attention back towards him as he continued on.

"If I can't-a get us outta here, we're doomed!" He grabbed the device and tossed it into the crate behind him, standing up, the creaking of the wooden planks groaning beneath him. "Too many times-a I've relied on him to rescue us! If I keep-a waiting now, the princess is going to-a be in grave danger!"

"We're going to prevent that," Robin replied, trying to calm him down. "If we work together, we can stop anything terrible from happening."

"I know, that'sa why I've been working on something," he told her, digging back through his crate. He pulled out a small egg shaped item, with Robin curiously looking at it. "This will-a help us escape for sure!"

"What exactly is that?" Robin asked curiously. Luigi pulled it back and set it back inside the crate, facing away from Robin.

"It's nearly ready, and when-a it is, I'll-a come and get you all!" His words had so much hope behind them, and Robin couldn't bear to break that hope. She smiled and began to walk away, turning back once more.

"Peach is worried about you, just so you know. Come upstairs and grab something to eat, I'm sure everybody else would be relieved to see you as well." As Robin left, Luigi paused, waiting as he heard her footsteps lead her out and through the door. As the door shut, tears began to drop off his eyes, falling into his bushy mustache. He fell backwards and sat down, his hands covering his eyes as he shook his head.

"I'm-a so weak..." He said aloud, tears falling onto the wooden boards as well. "I don't think I can-a do this..." Oblivious to him, another person stood in the corner of the room, eyes watching from the shadows silently.

* * *

 _Day Six, 21XX_

"Good morning students. It is 8:00 am, and nighttime is officially over."

Robin tapped her foot impatiently, waiting for the announcement to end, not realizing somebody else was behind her. As the monitor clicked off and the words disappeared from the dining room door, she reached for the handle, only to stop as a voice called out from behind her.

"Robin, how is he?" Peach asked worriedly, Robin jumping up slightly. She turned back towards her and frowned, Peach rubbing her head in response, laughing awkwardly. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you..."

"You're fine," Robin replied, smiling back. "And for Luigi, he's really putting the pressure on himself right now. He's determine to find a way out for us. I tried to find you yesterday so we could go meet with him again."

"Ah, I was busy tending to Bowser still. He's convinced himself that he's been terribly injured by Wario, but I think he's just trying to guilt me into serving his food," Peach replied, giggling. "Which makes me think, how about we skip eating with the others and bring Luigi a plate of food?"

Robin immediately nodded her head in response. "I think that'd be a great idea. Perhaps seeing you calm and collected would help bring him back to reality." The two of them entered the dining room and passed into the kitchen, both of them working hard and preparing a great big breakfast for the younger brother. Zelda eventually entered the kitchen, surprised by the two of them. She went to work on Wario's meal of french fries, ketchup and hamburger first before preparing everyone else's meals, while Peach and Robin finished on their end. Satisfied, they left the dining room and made their way towards the basement.

As they approached the door, Robin was first to grab the handle, but seemed puzzled as she yanked on it and it refused to open. She set her plate down and placed both hands on the handle, yanking it hard before stepping back a few feet. Chanting to herself, a blaze of fire shot from her hands and struck the doorknob, but to no avail, as the fire magic seemed to disperse upon impact. _Is there some kind of spell preventing my magic from working?_

"W-What's wrong Robin?! Why won't the door open?!" Peach cried out, Robin tugging on the handle once more.

"It's locked! That can't be..." Robin replied, her words flustered as she pulled as hard as she could on the doorknob. She eventually stopped and thought for a moment, thinking of an alternate way in. "We've got to get down to the first floor, hurry!"

As Robin took off, Peach shouted after her. "What about the food?!"

"No time! Luigi might be in trouble!" Robin replied. Peach dropped the plate down as well, chasing after Robin. The two of them dashed past the main lobby and sprinted down the steps of the entryway, with Robin turning around at the base. She ran for the basement door on the first floor, and upon reaching, tried to repeat her previous actions, realizing this door wouldn't open either. _What the hell is going on?!_ As Peach arrived out of breath, she tried to speak up, but both of them froze as they heard somebody crying out.

" **HELP-A ME! SOMEBODY, PLEASE-A SAVE ME!** "

"N-NO!" Peach cried out, panicking, turning around wildly. "That's Luigi! Where is he?!"

" **HELP-A ME! SOMEBODY, PLEASE-A SAVE ME!** "

Robin listened in and realized where the voice was coming from, twisting around and heading towards the front of the hallway. Peach followed after her, and as they turned the corner, Robin could briefly see the color green pressed up against the glass mosaic of the boiler room door. Robin shouted back, assuring him they were on their way, but before they could reach it, the worst thing that could have happened, happened.

A loud, piercing noise sounded off, and the floor shook briefly, both Robin and Peach catching themselves from falling over. _An.. an explosion?!_ Dazed, Robin slowly moved her head back towards the boiler room door, which was now flung wide open. Smoke billowed out, and red stains shot across the floor in front of it. Still unable to grasp what was happening, Robin slowly moved forward, ignoring Peach's cries, reaching the door now as she looked inside, her eyes opening wide, horrified.

Luigi laid facing down, his mangled body motionless. His back was ruptured and exposed, with blood pouring out and several metal shards pierced into it. Robin blinked several times, over and over, unable to bring herself to acknowledge what she was seeing, before finally, that horrendous beeping sound chirped from her bracelet. _Three beeps..._ Three beeps played out, followed by the words **BOILER ROOM** , and then finally, a timer counting down from **59:59**.

Luigi was dead.


	5. EVOLUTION II

**.**

 **BORN OF THE DESIRE**

 **EVOLUTION II**

* * *

 _ **59:58**..._

Robin's eyes remained glued on the watch face for a brief moment as the reality of the situation began to slowly dawn on her. A corpse laid in front of her. _A victim..._ And among the thirteen of them that remain standing, one of them is responsible for his death. _The blackened..._ The whole nightmare from the first day played out in her head a hundred times over it felt as she had a nauseous feeling overcome her stomach. A lack of breakfast? Or perhaps the repugnant smell that began to waft towards her, something stirred and churned that made her feel incredibly ill. _That smell.. it's horrible..._

"N-No... No... Luigi..?" Peach whimpered, slowly edging around the door frame, until she saw his body in front of her. " **NOOO**!" Despair overcame her and she continued to shriek, her wailing slamming into Robin's head enough times that allowed her to regain some bit of control over her body. Her head shaking off the last bits of distortion, she turned to face Peach and grabbed her shoulders, now shaking the distraught princess and shouting back at her.

"Peach! We have to stay calm! We don't have much time to do this!" Robin retorted, her fingers digging into Peach's arms. "We need to find the others!" Robin pulled away and began heading back upstairs, but turning back around she noticed Peach slumped to the ground, motionless. Her arms drooped in front of her, and her face was hidden behind her hair as her head sat low and out of sight of Robin. _I understand how this feels, but we can't waste anymore seconds... We don't have a freebie this time around!_ Robin took off up the stairs, her search leading her to find the others. It wouldn't take much longer as she entered the main lobby, several of them came sprinting down from the dormitory and other rooms laid out around the floor.

"Robin, what the **hell** happened?!" Falcon shouted, coming to a halt in front of her. Behind him followed Lucas, Bowser, and Pikachu, all of them with the same distraught look Peach had cast on her own face moments ago. Falcon paused, awaiting an answer, but when Robin remained silent, he sighed, speaking up once more. "Well, there's not a whole lotta time I suppose. Let's get moving."

"Bowser," Robin spoke up, the brute cocking an eyebrow. "You might not be terribly thrilled over what happened." Her voice was stern, and although empathy filled her emotions, she tried to display none of it and continued the cold persona she built up during the first trial. "In fact, I've got a few things I need to ask you, but we need to go meet back up with Peach."

"Did you seriously leave her all by herself while some killer's runnin' loose?!" Bowser shouted back, his nostrils flaring. He groaned shortly afterwards, clutching his abdomen, his eyes darting away from Robin. "Argh... And what do you mean by I'm not gonna be thrilled?"

"W-Who was it..?" Lucas asked skittishly, his hands holding one another for comfort. Robin frowned slightly, but turned away, her movement headed back towards the first floor.

"It would just best if you all came and saw for yourself," Robin replied. She paused briefly, scouting around, her head turned back slightly. "Do we know where everybody else is at the moment?" As if on cue, more footsteps approached the group, and now Lucina and Pit joined the rest of them. Robin looked among each of them, thoughts crossing her mind. _Some of them are still missing... That doesn't bode well._

"Well, let's get a move on!" Falcon shouted, Robin nodding her head in response. They all took off down the stairs, Robin immediately noticing something off as they approached the scene once more. Expecting to once again get a whiff of the malodorous scent, nothing seemed to hit her. Her eyes darted across the entryway as she looked for a certain somebody, but they were missing. A strange feeling began to overcome her, one she could only associate as _dread_.

"W-Where is she?!" Bowser shouted, shoving past Falcon and Robin as they reached the bottom of the steps. His massive footsteps caused the ground to shake each stomp as fury fueled each move he made. His breathing was loud and arduous, and Falcon ran after the flailing beast as he came to a halt beside the boiler room door. His whole body froze and he gulped so loud each of them could feel it in their own chests. "P... Peach..?"

 _No, it isn't her..._ Robin wanted to say, but her own emotions overcame her and she remained silent, an uncertainty filling the air as she began to slowly step around the door once again. Silence filled the room, and as Falcon began to resuscitate the tired beast, Robin's footsteps clacked one after another, eventually splashing, finally stopping as she stood in front of the boiler room door, her face breaking that cold, solemn appearance she tried to hold. Lucina and Pit ran up beside her, confused and worried about what was happening...

"H.. He's gone..?" Robin said, her eyes scanning ahead, unable to grasp what it was she was witnessing.. "It's all gone..?" Robin's eyes shot down and looked at the floor beneath her, and realized the blood streaks from when the door flung open were missing as well. Everything was gone; the blood, the body, and Peach. _What is happening?! What the hell is going on!_

"Robin! What happened here?!" Falcon shouted, both Robin and Bowser still in some sort of daze. Lucina began to creep up slowly towards the boiler room, her hand on the hilt of her blade, her eyes observing every possible inch in front of her. Pit followed after her, and surprisingly, Lucas approached the scene as well, turning to Robin as he came up beside her.

"A-Are you alright Robin?" Lucas asked nervously, his hand grabbing Robin's. As if pulled from her trance, she looked down towards the frightened child, Pikachu now approaching her as well as Lucas tightening his grip. "I'm scared.. are we going to lose this time?"

Robin knelt down beside him, taking her other hand and placing it on top of Lucas's head, rubbing his hair softly. "Don't worry, we'll figure this out and then we'll bring the blackened to justice!" That small bit of talk seemed to encourage the boy, and he nodded his head in response, pulling away from Robin and following Lucina and Pit into the boiler room. As Robin began to pull herself back up, a smell did cross her nose, and she finally brought her attention to the pool of water she stood in. _No... this isn't water..._

She knelt back down again and breathed in deeply, the smell hitting her immediately, Robin yanking backwards. "Ahh!" she shouted, stepping back up and drunkenly moving backwards, her mind in some sort of daze once more. Falcon sprinted over and caught her, allowing her time to regain her thoughts. As she did, she glanced at Falcon and pulled away from him, dusting her robe as Falcon stared at her puzzling.

"Did.. you find something?" Falcon asked, his words seemingly appearing to avoid offending the other. Robin eyes watched over the strange liquid, the reflection of her own sight causing her to look away finally, words coming to her as she formulated a response for him.

"Earlier, this door blew wide open and blood came shooting out," Robin said, her eyes still scanning the entryway. "It seems that it's completely gone now, and all that remains is this strange liquid.. The smell reminiscent to that of-"

"B-Bleach?!" Falcon shouted, his own face near the liquid as he finally yanked back. "What the hell?!"

"I'm not entirely positive, but I'm suspecting that chemical might be responsible..." Robin pulled a finger to her chin, holding it in place as her mind began racing."What's bothering me the most is that Luigi's body is missing when it was here no later than.." Peering briefly at her watch, she noticed the time now said **48:22** on it. _We've already spent ten minutes! I was distracted for too long.._

"Luigi? No.. No!" Bowser began to cry out, his face contorting. Sharp scratching sounded the room as his claws dug into the tiled floor, dragging them across the ground as he knelt over. "If I wasn't so weak.. I didn't waste so much time crying to myself over my boy...! I could've done something!"

"Your boy?" Robin asked curiously, Bowser pulling his face up towards her now, tears and snot pouring out.

"Yeah.. that video showed me my boy's face. It made me sick to my stomach, thinking this chump might've done something to him!" Bowser pounded his fist on the ground, roaring all the while. "I just, felt so damn sorry for myself that I didn't leave my room! Peach kept trying to cheer me up, but I just blamed it on my fight with that ugly joke! And now I've let that green turd get caught and killed and who knows where the hell Peach is! ARGH!"

"B-Bowser, man, calm down!" Falcon said, his hands attempting to put out a fire in front of him. Pikachu too yanked on Bowser's leg, and together, the mighty beast fell back to the ground, shaking the floor as he collapsed. His paws covered his face as more tears and snot poured out, his mouth groaning and whining all the while.

"All.. All my life, I've been butting heads with the two of them," Bowser said, sadness ringing in his words. "At first there was issues between us, like not seeing eye to eye to some things or maybe I thought Peach'd be better off with me- the usual things, ya know! We'd exchange blows, I'd run off to my place, Mario'd kick my tail, the same routine for years. It bonded us, as enemies at first, but then as something more as we kept at it again and again. I wouldn't go and call us pals, but despite that I can't go back and face him knowing his brother's blood was on my end."

"You didn't kill him though," Falcon replied. Pikachu rubbed its small paw on Bowser's leg while he shook his massive head once more, his hand wiping away snot and tears.

"I promised him I'd look after the both of them before we left," Bowser replied, Robin listening in now, his words triggering a specific response in her mind, one that desired that knowledge of what he was saying. However, not much more regarding the specific bits were told as he continued on his story. "They didn't know about it, but he came and asked me directly to make sure nothing happens to the two of them. I told him nothing's gonna happen at all, we're just gonna go off on some trip for who knows what and we'll be back at it again. But..."

"You two keep him company, I'm going to go up ahead and see what they've found," Robin told them, Falcon and Pikachu still attempting to comfort Bowser. _I need to come ask him about that later on... For now, there's more pressing matters to attend to. It's time: no faltering, I've got to get this done to keep Fox's wish alive. I won't fail._

Cautiously, Robin stepped forward into the boiler room, her eyes now finally able to get a view of what exactly the room contained inside. Dust flew all around her, and she waved her hand in front of her face, clearing the air. Immediately in front of her was the massive boiler tank itself, no more than maybe ten feet ahead of her. The entire body of the tank was ruptured, and it was possible to see directly inside the tank. To the immediate right were two smaller green boxes, both metal, and both with giant tubes extending from them and to the ceiling. It appeared that hundreds of pipes and dials ran across the right wall, and directly in the middle of the room was a small, dim ceiling lamp.

"What happened here?" Pit asked, his hand over his chin, rubbing it intensely. Lucina peered at him strangely, Pit seemingly oblivious as he began to cock his head left and right, peering deep into the boiler tank. "This seems.. really weird. What is this hunk-a-junk suppose to do, exactly?"

"It's a boiler. Typically, they have water circulate through them and then heats it up, redistributing it throughout the house," Robin replied, eyeing the mechanism curiously. She followed the various tubes and dials, noticing an awfully strange trend each of them displayed that didn't seem to match up with the main boiler tank itself... _Why are all of these perfectly fine if the boiler tank exploded from pressure? Is that not what Peach and I heard just before we discovered Luigi's body?_ Her eyes wandered to the smaller green tanks beside the main one, noticing now the closer one covered with smoke and burn marks. _Now that I think about it, i_ _t almost smells like somebody... was cooking something in here?_ Before Robin had time to further examine it, Lucina's voice caught her attention.

"Did you have these things back in your homeland?" Lucina asked curiously. Pulling away from her observations, Robin shook her head, smiling all the while, almost coaxing the two of them into a state of calmness.

"No, in fact I-" She immediately froze, her eye squinting as her brain seemed to short-circuit. _Wait.. how in the world would I know how this machine system works? I've never once seen one of these things before in my life!_ Robin smacked a hand to her forehead and rubbed it furiously, unsure what was happening. Lucina and Pit both cast looks to one another, themselves unsure at how to response. Robin finally shook her head, looking back at the boiler tank. "I actually don't know why I knew what these were, but regardless I'm positive about my hunch."

"Your hunch? How often do you go off of one of those things?" Pit asked, his hands positioned behind his head now. Robin simply responded with a chuckle, as she herself didn't even know how to respond. Disregarding his statement, Robin surveyed the rest of the room, assuring she had every detail down to a T before leaving. _So, the room isn't terribly big, and the bulk of it consists of the boiler system. Let's see... near the entryway door.._ Robin turned around and glanced back, two things catching her eye: a bucket, and the door itself. Her focus now on the door, she focused briefly, words then escaping her mouth.

" **Ellight**!" In an instant, a small, whirring light shone from her fingertips, floating forward towards the door. She peered closely and saw exactly what she was hoping to see: blood stains. _However... This is too dry to match up to the time of death.._ She scanned over the mess several times, concluding that something was very much odd with the way the blood appeared on the door. "This blood on the door.. It's several hours old."

"Huh? How can you tell?" Pit asked, his eyes wandering around the same scene now as Lucina explored the rest of the room. Robin positioned the light closer towards Pit's side, allowing him to process exactly what it was he was seeing.

"Could it be that the blood had dried up?" Lucina asked, her voice drifting from the other side of the room. "Which confirms it's the victim's blood?" Robin shook her head, examining the stains once more.

"It can't be. It's been less than an hour since Luigi was killed," Robin responded, pulling away from the door now, the light from her spell dissipating. "Something is off, and I wonder if this bucket will reveal any truths..." Robin turned her attention to the bucket beside the door, kneeling down beside it, glancing and checking every edge and spec on it. She immediately noticed something off beside the bucket: a large circular ring left in the dust. It almost seemed to match something... _If I were to move this bucket back over it.._

"They're the same sizes?" Pit asked curiously, observing Robin's actions. She turned to him, surprised almost.

"Oh? You had the same thought then?" Robin asked, to which Pit replied by nodding his head. _Well then, he's definitely brighter than I originally thought. Maybe he can help out.._ She turned her attention back to the bucket, glancing around once more before speaking back up. "I don't think this bucket was moved between the two marks, but instead-"

"There was a second bucket!" Pit exclaimed, slamming his fist into his hand. It was almost as if a visible exclamation mark appeared over his head, and Robin nodded her head, giggling slightly. "Then don't tell me... there's going to be a third and fourth bucket as well?!" This time, Robin turned to him slowly, unsure if he was messing around, but the stern look on his face as he was lost in thought shattered her hopes, her hand rubbing her forehead. _I take it back then.._ Robin finally took a deep breath, pulling her face close to the bucket in an attempt to gauge what the contents were, and immediately her answer was given.

"It's the same smell as the liquid outside," she said aloud, more thoughts running across her mind. "Whatever happened to the blood, it has to do with what was originally inside this bucket. And I'm starting to think if we can find the second bucket, we might have our answer."

"The culprit killed Luigi late last night, and then threw his blood out to make it seem like it happened while you and Peach were down here!" Pit said confidently, his hands now positioned on his hips, his face practically glowing. Robin crossed her arms and continued to listen, an eyebrow cocked. "The second bucket was full of gross water stuff and that was used to wash away the blood, thus hiding the fact that Luigi didn't die at that moment!"

"While I think you are on to something with the buckets, I don't think Luigi could've been killed last night," Robin replied, instantly breaking Pit's glowing stance, his face frowning. "The timers on the watches would've started at the same time as his death, which means if it had happened last night, we would have all been woken up to the sound of those beeps."

"Then... what exactly is going on here?" Pit finally said, scratching his head, attempting to make sense of what they were seeing before them. Robin simply shook her head, herself unsure of what to make of it all. _We are on the right track, that much I'm sure about. While he wasn't killed last night, the culprit is still trying to hide something strange about his death. And there's still the matter on the main boiler tank: how exactly did it explode? Was it really an accident, or..._ Satisfied with what she's seen so far, Robin turned to Lucina, seeing her finishing up on her end as well.

"What were you able to find over here?" Robin asked curiously, Lucina turning and smiling, holding a small grey device in her hands. As Robin approached her, the blue-haired duelist presented the item with an excited look, wondering what the item could possibly be. Robin took one look over it and grabbed it from her. _This was what Luigi was working on when I visited him the other day..._

 _"If I can't-a get us outta here, we're doomed!"_

 _"Too many times-a I've relied on him to rescue us! If I keep-a waiting now, the princess is going to-a be in grave danger!"_

 _Whatever it was he was working on, he was determined it'd help us escape... but how exactly? What were you planning to do, Luigi?_ These thoughts raced across Robin's mind as she held the strange device firmly, Lucina's voice breaking her train of thought.

"I found it tucked away in the corner, behind all the other cluttered items stashed back there," Lucina replied. "Along with it, I noticed a smaller grate leading to a crawl space?"

"Ah, that's probably an air vent," Robin replied, crouching down now to examine the area Lucina described. She pushed aside the small clutter in front of it and examined the grate, confirming as much. "So really then, all that's important in this area is this device right here. And in fact..." She pulled it up towards her once more, examining it closely. Her hand touched the various buttons on the front end, feeling the cold plastic, and she pressed down on the red button on the end of the row. A small click played, but nothing more, and Robin moved her attention to the top side of the device now.

"What's so special about that thing?" Pit asked. Robin continued to rub her fingers against the small circular metal screen, several holes dotted into the sheet. As she pressed the red button again, the clicking sound played once more, but yet again nothing followed. Robin finally took her attention to the middle of the device, noting the glass case that appeared able to hold something inside. Whenever the red button was pressed down on, the clicking sound would come from that center piece, and two small cylinders would rotate, with nothing else happening.

"Luigi was working on this the day before," Robin finally replied, flipping the device around once more to assure herself everything has been checked. "I'm not sure as to what it does, but I'm positive it's important to this case."

"Another hunch?" Pit asked, to which Robin grinned at him.

"Then, besides that air vent, there's nothing more to this room?" Lucina asked curiously. Robin nodded her head, looking down the stairway towards the basement now. _Lucas entered the room as well, I wonder if he's found anything down there. And more importantly, where did Peach go?_ They began their descent, with Robin taking the lead and Lucina following after her. Pit made once last look around the room and followed after them.

As they reached the bottom of the steps and entered the basement, sounds emerged from the crates stashed against the back wall, and almost instinctively, Lucina began to approach them, her hand on the hilt of her blade once more. Reaching closer and closer to the crates, a noise played from behind one, and finally a person appeared, his small hands waving defeat as his face saw Lucina's determination.

"H-Hold on, it's just me!" Lucas shouted, Lucina pausing briefly before returning from her stance. "C-Corrin and I were d-digging through these crates... There's a whole l-lot of weird stuff Luigi had in them..."

"Corrin?" Pit asked, her head popping up from behind one of the crates in response. Lucina and Robin both looked at her strangely as well, Corrin pulling herself up out of the wreckage and towards them, Pit continuing his questioning. "When did you get here?"

"I was slightly behind the rest of you all," Corrin replied, dusting herself off. "When I arrived, Mr. Falcon told me that you all were exploring the first room, so I took it upon myself to come down to the second room and help Lucas survey the room."

"How did you enter the room?" Robin immediately asked.

"I took the door underneath the main stairway."

Robin paused at her response, confused by her words. _Both doors to the basement were locked, I'm positive of that! Peach and I tried them both, it's why we had to come towards the boiler room..._ Moments passed as Robin continued her train of thoughts, and she seemed to ignore the others, her mind racing. Lucina and Pit began to react to something else the room, and not long after they covered their faces did Robin finally smell the same thing as they did, the scent causing her to feel repulsed. _I-It smells putrid!_

"Y-Yeah... that was the first thing we did too when we came down here.." Lucas replied, turning back towards the dozens of crates. "We eventually got used to the smell, and now we're trying to figure out where it's coming from."

"It is almost like somebody covered the entire room in it," Corrin said, her fingers pinching her nose. She was right though, as the smell was quite repugnant, even Robin found herself hesitating to step further into the basement.

"Stay here for a moment," Robin told them, turning towards the stairway Corrin used connected to the entryway. "I'm going to go grab something to help us with detecting the smell." _And I want to confirm Corrin's statement..._ Ascending up the steps, Robin arrived at the door, and sure enough it opened without any issue. _Somebody unlocked this door either before I left to grab the others or after we all arrived... Could it have been one of them?_ Arriving back into the entryway, she jogged over towards Falcon, Bowser, and Pikachu.

"Oh, welcome back," Falcon said to her, Bowser's head drooping low still, Pikachu moving towards Robin as she stopped before them.

"Pikachu, can you come with me?" Robin asked, kneeling before the small creature, holding her hand out. "I need your help in locating something." Pikachu nodded its head and Robin petted the mouse in response, smiling. She looked up at Falcon before leaving, one more question remaining for him. "How long after I went into the boiler room did Corrin arrive?"

Falcon grabbed his chin and rubbed it, cocking an eyebrow. "Probably moments after you went inside. She turned around and went straight for the basement door underneath the staircase."

 _I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with that, but something's still off.._ Robin thought to herself. "Can you do me a favor as well? I need somebody to go check the door on the second floor leading to the basement."

"Uh, yeah, I can," Falcon replied hesitantly, glancing at Bowser while he responded. "But should we leave him-"

"Go on, I'll be fine," Bowser replied, pulling himself up at the same time. "I'll try to stop being such a sourpuss. I've gotta help out in some kinda way."

"Try and see if you can find the others then, especially Peach. Start with the dormitories, gather anybody you can and bring them back here," Robin commanded. Bowser nodded his head and took off up the hall. Falcon too nodded his head, sticking a thumbs up towards Robin before taking off up the stairs, leaving Pikachu and Robin by themselves. With nothing left to do here, Robin returned to the basement via the door in the entryway, reuniting with the others. She turned back towards Pikachu and gave the mouse its instructions. "This smell covering the room, try and see if you can figure out which crate it's coming from."

Pikachu initially covered its nose, tears slightly forming beneath its small eyes. "P-Pika..." the creature whined, shaking its head furiously before breathing in deeply, a small sigh following afterwards. They watched it curiously as it began to scour the room, stopping every so often, climbing on top of various crates. It reached one tucked away in the far corner, and within seconds yelped, running from it. Returning to Robin, it pulled on her leg, pointing back at that same crate.

"That must be the one then," Pit said, Robin moving towards it carefully, her steps navigating past the various rubble and boxes. Arriving at the one pointed out by Pikachu, she covered her nose once more, the smell more vicious than before. _Here goes nothing.._ Removing the lid, Robin gagged, pulling her face away from the crate as Lucina and Pit both moved up beside her, peaking into the box.

"A-A pig?!" Lucina cried out, Robin steeling herself and looking back inside the crate. Sure enough, a massive pig's body laid inside, and the smell was horrid, the animal having spoiled for days now. _Who would put this here? And why? It obviously wasn't here the day before!_ Something caught Robin's eye, and she glanced over the pig's body, noticing something gleaming from beneath it. Calming herself, she reached down, much to Lucas and Pit's horror, and grabbed the body turning it over. Her eyes widen as she noticed several lashes across the back, as well as several bits of shrapnel lined into its body.

"So.. what do you think is going on here Robin?" Pit asked her, Robin still motionless, her mind racing. Both of them turned towards the far door as a voice called out, Falcon now stepping into the basement.

"Gah- that smells terrible! What is it?!" Falcon reeled back slightly, and Robin pulled away from the pig's body, satisfied with her investigations down here. _If Falcon was able to enter from the second floor, that means that door was also unlocked. The reason the culprit locked both doors... It's all starting to add up. As for who the culprit is though..._

"I've got a few places to check out before I'm finished," Robin said, glancing at her watch. The time read ' **26:02** ', and Robin looked back towards them all, confidence on her face. "Falcon? Care to come with me to the storage room? The rest of you, wait in the entryway for the others to arrive." Falcon nodded his head in response, and the two of them ascended back up the same steps he just came down.

"So the door was unlocked, as I'm guessing you figured out," Falcon told her. "But there was something strange in front of the door..."

"Two plates of food?" Robin quickly replied.

"Yep! So what I think happened is that you originally tried to enter the basement via that door, and then the entryway door, and then finally through the boiler room."

"Precisely," she replied. They reached the top of the steps and paused as Robin continued. "Can you guess what's happened then?"

"Well, that is what's slipping me up at the moment. From what I can gather, you and Peach tried to meet with Luigi, couldn't use either doors, and then ultimately had to use the boiler room door. However, something else was waiting for you there, and now his body and the evidence is all gone."

Robin opened the door and before she could respond, something else caught her attention. She looked down at the plates of food and noticed details off about them, ones that she didn't recognize immediately. Falcon peered into the hallway and audibly nodded his head, stepping ahead of her and squatting down at the mess.

"This isn't how you two left the plates I'm assuming," Falcon asked, with Robin staring at them inquisitively. Both plates looked as if something had run through them and smeared a mess of eggs and sausage and ketchup everywhere. Turning her head, she immediately noticed something else odd, one she couldn't exactly explain. _The air vent was.. opened?_ Squatting down beside the vent now, Robin ran her fingers along it, noting the lack of screws in it, allowing her to easily pull it aside.

"Somebody came through here and didn't see the food ahead of them," Robin said, with Falcon peering down the vent now.

"Damn, it's too dark to see through this thing. Any clue where it leads to?"

Before responding, Robin remained in thought, looking over at the other wall, only to notice another air vent. Thinking back to herself, she closed her eyes, and for several minutes remained this way, til finally breaking out and grinning at Falcon. "Come on, to the storage room!" Before he could protest at all, she took off, and Falcon followed after her, the two cutting around the corner and darting into the aforementioned room.

Inside, the massive room took the two of them by surprise as they observed its size, massive shelves and walkways lining the room. Various crates and items and furniture pieces rested on each row, the hard grey color of the floor, shelves and ceiling allowing the items to pop out at them. Taking only a few steps, Robin remembered what it was she was wanting to look for, and immediately turned to one of the sides of the warehouse, running ahead once more. As Falcon arrived to her location again, he saw her observing something fixed to the wall, before realizing what it was she was doing.

"This air vent leads directly to the one out the hallway," Robin said, peering inside. "I think it curves and bends around, but if you get close enough, you can smell it."

Falcon dipped his head low beside Robin's and pushed his face forward, breathing in the smell before realizing what it was she meant. "T-The breakfast plates?!"

"Exactly. Whoever went crawling through the first vent came out and ran through the plates in order to cross into this vent. They had to return to the storage room. But for what..." Robin turned her head to the side and saw a massive safe, a padlock wrapped around the door's handle. She stepped towards it and rummaged around the lock before spotting the keyhole, stepping backwards slightly. " **Arcflame**!" Fire shot out from her hands and struck the padlock, however once again bouncing off and dissipating.

"What was that?" Falcon asked curiously, Robin fuming to herself.

"My magic won't work on the doors... I wonder if it's related to that one rule..."

"Do that enough times and it'll surely irritate the one in charge," a voice called out to them. Robin and Falcon turned their heads quickly, Zelda and Samus greeting them as they approached them. Zelda smiled softly and placed her hand on the enormous safe, eyeing its size before her. "We too are curious as to what's hidden inside, however unable to open it much like you both."

"Is this where the two of you've been?" Falcon asked, his hands placed on his hips as now Samus replied.

"Soon as the bracelets went off we sprung into action. I heard several of you heading towards the entryway, so I decided to explore the other rooms since we didn't need everybody to crowd the same place." Samus grabbed something from her jacket pocket and pulled it out, a small piece of pink fabric floating to the ground before her. "Zelda discovered that on her way over. Any clue who that would belong to?"

"Ah! That has to belong to Peach!" Robin shouted, picking the small pink strip up towards her eyes. _The fabric and small white frills matches her dress.._ Robin thought to herself. "Neither of you ran into her then?"

Zelda shook her head, this time answering. "Unfortunately not. As Samus said, several of us split up immediately. I remained in the cafeteria to clean up after Wario, and when that infernal sound went off, I stayed behind for a while before entering this room."

"What caused you to come into here?" Falcon asked.

"A loud explosion sounded outside, so I ran to check on it. As I came out into the main lobby, I thought I had seen somebody else enter the storage room, but as I chased after them, I only noticed Samus in the corner. Whoever else that was I saw must've either been an illusion, or..."

"The culprit," Robin replied quickly, to which Zelda nodded her head. "Ah, I can't help but notice you said 'somebody else'. Are you implying you already knew Samus was in here?"

This time Zelda shook her head, her hands still calmly holding one another as the princess sighed. "I had no clue she was in here. By 'somebody else', I meant that whoever it was I did see wore some strange outfit, one that I could not recognize as belonging to any of us. The color was bright and... shiny?" Pausing after that last word, Zelda turned her head away. It seems despite the situation, Zelda would remain calm, and this was no exception, even as Robin began to doubt her words.

"Uh huh. Anyways, I think we've investigated this room enough," Robin said, turning towards Falcon. "I've got one more stop I want to check out before we wrap things up."

"Before we leave, I've got a question for Ms. Cold Eyes," Falcon said, Samus meeting his eyes immediately, her's serious as the ones behind his visor. He stepped towards her and crossed his arms. "Last trial, you wanted nothing to do with us. Nothing! But now it seems like you're also running around blindly following the headmaster's demands."

"I've got a simple answer for somebody as simple as you," Samus replied coldly, matching her stern gaze. "I'm a survivalist. I've lived in the deepest parts of the universe by adapting and reacting to my situations. Once I realized just how serious our situation was, I changed my game plan simply to **survive**. That means playing along with the rest of you ingrates."

"So how exactly did you contribute to our search?" Falcon retorted.

"Check the laundry room. The stuff in the entryway is clearly bleach. I mean, only if you've got a brain on you." Samus turned away from the and walked off towards the exit, leaving the four of them to themselves. Falcon gritted his teeth and sighed, his fists slightly clenched. Robin instead continued to ponder to herself as Zelda now spoke up.

"Then shall we go investigate that room?"

* * *

Inside the laundry room, Robin immediately set to work exploring each and every corner as Falcon sat down on one of the benches, rubbing his head. Zelda approached him and held her hand out, Falcon looking up to her curiously as Pikachu seated itself next to Falcon.

"Wha-" Before he could finish, Zelda pressed her hand onto his forehead and after a few moments, a soothing aura came from it. Falcon held his mouth slightly open as Zelda pulled away, his eyes blinking several times over. "M-My headache is.. gone?!" Pikachu rubbed its eyes with its small hands, it too in disbelief at what it was seeing.

"Hylian magic," Zelda said, smiling. "Back in my homeland I studied many books, several on flora and fauna, others on different kinds of magics. I had to teach myself to become helpful for my.. friend. He would always risk himself for others, and the least I could do was supply him with some sort of relief from his injuries."

"Hylian magic, huh? So by that logic you must be from Hyrule, on the eastern part of the continent Gormott. Does that mean you guys are technically under Ardainian rule, just as Nohr and Ylisse?"

Zelda shook her head. "The Ardainians do not see us as allies nor competitors. Due to previous negotiations by previous rulers, both nations have essentially wiped the other clean from their memories. We do not acknowledge them, and they the same. I think it is for the best, after all, the tragedy they struck down on to us eons ago..." She remained silent as her head lowered, her body seating herself next to Falcon. The usual calm demeanor she held herself to seemed to dissipate for only a moment as she pulled herself back together, turning to Falcon and smiling.

"I never knew that stuff. Growing up in Port Town, I always heard about the other kingdoms, the ones that didn't keep up in technology," Falcon crossed his legs and leaned backwards, looking up at the ceiling now. "But it didn't matter to me. Port Town was huge, probably the biggest land-space hub on the continent. I never bothered to learn about the other countries because I was always looking up to the sky, wanting to break through that barrier to the outside."

"Unlike you, I did tutor myself on the other nations," Zelda said to him, a slight giggle coming from her, to Falcon's surprise. "Ignorance can only take you so far. By keeping myself informed of the outside world, when the day came that we would break through our own barrier, I would be ready, and I would make sure he would also be ready..."

"Pika?"

Falcon paused, cocking an eyebrow now. "Who's this 'he' you keep referring to? A possible suitor to your _highness_?" Falcon asked, his voice obviously reflecting his teasing. Zelda simply shook her and smiled, her eyes wandering.

"My only friend..." Her words struck Falcon and he felt an awkwardness come over him, shaking it off as Robin now approached the two of them, her hands on her hips.

"Hope the break helped. I was able to figure out some important things," she told them, both of them standing up from the bench as Pikachu stood on top of it. "Several cleaning supplies seem to have gone missing from this room, including the very same item both you and Samus mentioned."

"Bleach?"

"Precisely. It also seems like a mop and a few buckets are missing from the closet," Robin replied, turning now to the back of the room, her hand pointing towards it. "You can see the indention of where the mop hung up at, as well as two spots perfectly sized for our buckets."

"So the culprit used those items to do... what?" Falcon scratched his head, to which Robin shook her head, a cocky grin on her face.

"Let's head back to the entryway and see if Bowser was able to find the others," Robin replied, the four of the exiting the room and back into the main lobby. However, before they could continue on, footsteps were fast approaching them, and they turned to see Pit out of breath, his eyes huge and worried.

"G-Guys!" He shouted, all of them running towards him. "We found Peach! It's bad!"

"What happened!?" Falcon shouted back, Pit shaking his head.

"There's no time! The dormitories, quickly!" All of them followed after the angel and into the dormitory, where they ducked inside and quickly glanced around the room. Peach wasn't in sight, but Lucina was, her face looking grim. Opposite of her was Dark Pit, his face grinning, Robin trying to ignore him as she looked towards Pit now. Pit pointed his hand towards the back of the room, and there another door appeared, one that none of them seemed to have recognized.

"Where does that go to?" Robin asked, her mind racing. _That wasn't there the first time we came through here... Nor was it here this morning!_

"It's the balcony, and that's where-" Before Pit could continue, a powerful voice roared out as well as several footsteps coming afterwards.

" **MOVE**!"

Bowser came bursting out from the balcony, in his arms carrying the Mushroom Kingdom princess herself, her body limp. He noticed Robin and the others and ran towards them, shoving Pit out of the way as he reached them, his eyes full of tears. "Help me, please! She's been badly injured!" They looked down at her and saw the side of her head bleeding, a bruise underneath her eye as well. Her arms were cut up and her dress was torn, blood splattered everywhere. _It looks like she got into a fight..?_ Robin said to herself as Zelda now approached her, holding her hands in front of her as she did earlier.

"Keep her still, it'll take me a few moments for her to begin recovering."

As Zelda began her healing process, Robin turned towards the one person she wanted to avoid, his face still grinning as his eyes remained on Robin. _You did this, didn't you?!_ Without skipping a beat, Robin stood and stomped towards Dark Pit, her eyes full of scorn. As she reached him, before either of them exchanged words, her hand crossed over and smacked his face, that grin disappearing quickly as she reared back for another, this time the dark angel stepping away.

"What did you do?!" Robin shouted, everyone now turning their attention to them.

"What was necessary. Would you believe me if I said I knew you'd react that very same way?" Dark Pit sneered. "You wouldn't paint me as the villain if you knew what she was trying to do."

"And what the hell would that be?!" Bowser shouted, Zelda grabbing his arm to calm him.

"She tried to escape out the balcony, but more importantly, she tried to escape **her** trial." As Dark Pit finished his sentence, he pulled out a green hat from behind him, that hat covered in blood. Each of them froze as they tried to figure out what exactly it was they were seeing, but Robin shook her head, still staring at him furiously. However, Lucina now spoke up, approaching him as well.

"To what right do you have to beat her the way you did?!" She cried out. "You nearly killed her!"

"And if I said it wasn't me that broke her head in?"

"You liar! Only you would do something as cruel as this!" Pit's words echoed throughout the room, and Dark Pit looked offended for a moment, his hand on his chest, his eye twitching. A cord was struck in his chest, and his whole body felt off now, all of this Robin able to pick up on. Ultimately, Dark Pit shook off his words and continued his mischievous grin, his arms shrugging now as he leaned back against the wall.

"Believe whatever it is you want to, I won't be able to convince you otherwise I suppose," he said, his eyes back to focusing on Robin. "However, understand that I only knocked her out to prevent her from escaping. In fact, if I wasn't there, she might've ended up dead instead of unconscious."

 _Is he implying that she was being... pursued?_ Robin thought to herself. Surely Peach would've come back to one of them if that was the case, however, another thought crossed her mind. _If I rule out all the wrong answers and focus on the only truth... The one that would lead me to the culprit... The one that involves Peach stumbling upon something she didn't need to see..._ She stepped away from Dark Pit and turned back to the dormitory doors, one more location on her mind. Glancing at the watch once more, she noted only a few minutes remaining, so not much time left to conduct her final investigation.

Ignoring the others as they called out to her, she exited the room, Peach's condition gone from her worries as she headed towards the other side of the main lobby. Approaching the doors to the basement and the dojo, she crouched down and faced the air vents once more. _A small person could fit through these, probably myself if I squeezed in tightly enough. But..._ She pulled up and turned back towards the main lobby, only to stop as somebody stood across from her.

"Is it not obvious yet?" Dark Pit asked, his pinky digging into his ear. "If you really haven't gotten it yet, I'd be pretty disappointed with you."

Instead of answering him, she shoved past him and continued down the entryway. _I don't have enough time to play around with you right now..._ Corrin and Lucas both stood in the entryway, Wario and Samus beside them, the latter investigating the pool of bleach on the floor. Robin continued down the steps and approached them, her eyes on one person alone.

"Corrin, can you come with me real quick?" Robin asked, the younger fighter nodding her head as the two of the went back up the steps, Corrin sharing some words with Robin as they did.

"We found a few more things while you were gone."

"Oh? And what's that?" Robin asked, ignoring Dark Pit as the two of them reached the top of the steps.

"Ms. Samus met up with us and saw the strange machine we held on to, explaining that it is called a cassette player. It can play these other smaller machines called tapes, which causes sounds and voices to come out." While this device was incredibly new to Robin, all along she somehow knew what it was already, simply nodding her head along with Corrin as she continued talking. "We also found a crate filled with.. interesting things."

"Like what?"

"Mr. Luigi's clothes." Corrin's words froze Robin briefly, her eyes closing slightly. _Then his hat that Peach had on her... And why Peach was running in the first place. Thank you Corrin, that's exactly what I was hoping to hear!_ She continued moving forward and led Corrin towards the air vents by the basement door.

"I need to test a theory, if you don't mind. See if you can crawl into there." Corrin looked at Robin strangely, the latter insisting much to Corrin's dismay. Accepting her request, Corrin crouched down and crawled into the vent, vanishing from sight in just a few moments. Afterwards, she crawled back out, adjusting herself slightly as Robin held a wide grin on her face.

"Does.. Does that help you at all, Ms. Robin?" Corrin asked hesitantly, to which Robin simply grinned back.

"Very much."

"It just seems weird to me that I do not recall seeing these vents on the map," Corrin said to Robin, who cocked her head to the side upon hearing this, her eyebrow furrowing. _The map..? The one Samus drafted for us?_ Almost as if responding to her thoughts, Corrin continued. "Ms. Samus was very thorough with her search of the building, after all-"

 **BING! BING! BING!**

That hideous noise once again played for them, each of them glancing at their watches as the face read " **0** ". Not long after, the speakers surrounding the building creaked on, and the same voice that each of them expected called out to them.

"It appears the time limit has been reached. If you all would, please meet back in the auditorium. The longer you take, the less time you'll have for your trial!" Robin could hear the voice chuckling once more, and afterwards, the speakers died down. Corrin held her arm worriedly, Robin turning and stepping away before the former called out to her.

"Ms. Robin... How could this have happened?"

Robin didn't know how to answer, but knowing the least she could do was acknowledge her, she turned back around to face the younger girl. Robin hardly spent any time really getting to know each of them, and finally she took the few moments to try and understand this other person in front of her. She never really thought about just how much younger Corrin was to her, who she herself was already fairly young. Despite that, Corrin had a sort of fire in her eyes that always seemed to be burning, one that Robin could chalk up to as determination. After remaining in silence for long enough, Robin found a few words to reply with.

"We let our guards down. He was waiting for us to get comfortable with one another before dropping that motive on to us. He wanted us to look blindly past each other's ulterior motives." Hoping her words would somehow give the girl reassurance, she quickly realized none were to be given as Corrin still looked away, her eyes full of sadness.

"After that day... Where each of us became such good friends... I wanted to believe in all of us. Ms. Lucina kept repeating this word to me, saying it will help each and every one of us survive this ordeal. Do you know what that word is?"

"Hope?" Robin asked, with Corrin now smiling softly, nodding her head.

"Hope. Hope in each of us, that we would become friends. Hope that we would find a way to escape this place. My siblings too believed in hope, each of them having hope in something completely different though." Corrin's smile disappeared as a kind of emotionless face appeared over her. "But that is the problem with hope as well: as much as it would motivate somebody to do right, it can motivate others to cause harm or... pain in others. Pain that does not go away so easily. People do not forget these things."

"Well, being that we're the _extraordinary_ P.M. Prospects, we should have hope in the rest of us that we will do good from here on out." Robin said cheerfully. "We should get a move on, the other's are probably waiting for us. I do need to make more stop though..." Corrin nodded her head begrudgingly, and the two of them split up.

* * *

All of them stood in front of the large bulletin board once more, hoping they'd never have to see that **thing** again. All of their faces were displayed once more, this time a large X marked over Luigi's face, as well as Fox's face. Robin returning to the auditorium glanced around the room and saw defeated faces, ones that shared the same look Corrin had on her own face. _Thirteen of us... In just a few days, we've already lost three of our small group._ Corrin approached Robin and held the cassette player in front of her, along with a small item in her other hand.

"You.. should probably hear this before we go down there," Corrin said, placing the item into the cassette player and hitting one of the buttons on it. After a few moments, a creaking sound played, and the audio sounded slightly distorted, the voice being hardly understood, but Robin knew who it was on the other end.

 _"M-My name is-a Luigi... My o-older b-brother is-a Mario... He's-a done so many amazing things I can't-a even think of where to start-a. All our lives, he's-a always been the hero of the day. He's gone and-a saved so many, many people! If I tried-a to go and list-a them all, it'd take me too long! I can't-a even begin explaining how-a many times he's rescued the princess, especially from-a that mean Bowser... But that's beside the point. What I'm-a trying to say is that my brother is-a hero. He's amazing. But I'm-a not. I don't-a know why I was chosen for the P.M. Project over him, but I think they-a got me mixed up with him. I can't-a do anything right. I always-a screw things up! And trying to protect the princess... with the rest of them-a there... I can't do it. So, this is my confession. I'm-a going to escape from here. When you find this, it's-a simply to make sure everybody knows that I'm-a coward! I'm-a gonna get killed if I stick around! I'm escaping from here, but I plan to-a come back with help and rescue you-a all! Just... Don't ever let-a my brother hear this. I can't even begin to think of the shame he would-a feel over it. ~Click..."_

"He.. He tried to escape?" Robin asked, staring at the cassette player curiously. "Where did you find that tape?"

"It was in his clothes... Whoever killed him didn't realize he had it on him."

 _No.. That can't be it. The cassette player was tossed aside on purpose, to make sure we didn't see it. If Luigi intended for us to find his goodbye message, he wouldn't have hidden either of them. And the matter of his clothes being stuff inside that crate..._ Robin looked around and turned back to face Corrin. "Thank you for sharing that with me."

"What do you think he was trying to do?" Her words were innocent and full of worry, Robin simply shaking her head in response. Hearing a groan, she turned and looked to Peach, who was barely standing thanks to Bowser's help, her arms covered in bandages with one wrapped around her head. Robin moved towards Peach, the bulletin board slowly dipping into the stage.

"Do.. you happen to remember anything?" Robin asked, Peach's eyes struggling to look over at her. "Maybe who had attacked you?"

"A-A bright color... t-that's all I c-can remember..." Peach forced out of her mouth, her voice so weak. "M-Maybe it's j-just blood... T-There was so m-much of it..."

"Peach, save your strength," Bowser said to her softly, his arm wrapped around her frail body. "Let her rest a little while before this trial starts." Robin nodded her head and looked over at the stage, the long red carpet once more rolled out across it. The doors at the back of the stage opened, and each of them made their way to the dreadful elevator, aware of what's to come after. Peach and Bowser the last to enter, the doors shut, and silence fell across the room.

Robin glanced from person to person, noticing the weary looks they would cast, or the grinning from one certain individual. She turned to Falcon, who noticed her, replying with a thumbs up and a wink. Beside her was Pikachu, who remained silent the whole time, perhaps realizing how dire their situation was. _One of us killed Luigi.._ Robin thought to herself, the image of his mangled corpse still on her mind, as well as it being completely gone. _Somebody in this elevator is lying to us. Who is the culprit?_

She looked between each of them, noting Zelda, Wario, Peach, and Bowser, who was still holding Peach up. Crossing over to the other side, she glanced between Falcon, Pit, Lucina, and Corrin. And finally, she looked over at Dark Pit, Lucas, Samus, and Pikachu. _One of them is the culprit... and I'll reveal the truth!_


	6. EVOLUTION III

**.**

 **BORN OF THE DESIRE**

 **EVOLUTION III**

* * *

Darkness awaited them as the elevator opened, a single chime echoing out into the shadows. Slowly, feeling as it drawn out over minutes, lights peeked out into the room, illuminating the small ring of podiums for them to once again stand attention at. Footsteps began to pound away as each of them exited the lift, Robin's eyes looking around once more at the stained glass windows surrounding them. Her image still haunted her, the one of the hanging pink bird, and now so did the one of the orange-fanged beast, the glass shattered into several shards. _Fox.._ she thought to herself, shaking her head. _I need to stay focused: I can't fail him now._

"Come in, come in, don't be shy now," the awful voice boomed out from the middle of the room, almost radiating into their minds, a vision of a dark twisting cloud forming in place of the voice. "It's only your second trial! You should have warmed up to this by now, as it was only a few days ago you were here playing before." It almost felt suffocating to hear his taunting, pointing out the reality that they're back here within the week, this time however malicious intent placed behind the culprit's actions. Somebody murdered another, and it was intentional, no doubts about it.

"Peach doesn't have the strength to go through this sick game!" Bowser bellowed, clutching the injured Peach as she held herself upwards, almost pulling herself away from him as he continued. "Whoever it was that decided to attack her must've done it on purpose 'cus of what she knew! Otherwise, why-"

"Quit your yapping already," Dark Pit exclaimed, yawning afterwards. "Clearly you just want her gone to cover up something, perhaps the truth of the case?" Before Bowser could angrily reply, Peach now spoke up, having successfully freed herself from Bowser's grasp. She hobbled forward, nearly losing her balance, but kept herself upright.

"I do not need the pity from any of you," she said proudly, Robin noticing a slight weakness in her words however. "I'll be fine." As if on cue, her legs suddenly gave out from her, and she collapsed to the floor, Bowser and Lucina both now rushing to her side, Pikachu bouncing over and whining at her. The voice boomed back on once more and they all turned their heads to listen.

"No, I do agree with them. It would be most tragic if you were to collapse in the middle of such an important event!" Once again sounding as if he was taunting them, Robin gritted her teeth, knowing the blow that must've hit to the princess. Peach shook her head once more as Lucina helped her up, but the headmaster spoke up once more. "In fact, I've prepared just the thing: besides the entrance to this room, another door will open." As he finished, a creaking was heard as they all turned to watch one of the panels slowly creep open, a light shining from inside. "Go ahead inside. It's been properly built for such an occasion!"

Bowser tried to find the words to speak up again, but he instead took this chance and held out his massive paw towards Peach, nodding his head slowly. "Cmon Peach. I promise you, we won't let you down." Giving in, Peach grabbed his hand, Bowser escorting her towards this newly unveiled room. As she stepped inside, she held her hand up and began to speak up, but the panel shut suddenly to their surprise, a black sheet vanishing any sight of her.

"W-What gives?!" Pit exclaimed, holding his fist up.

"Before any of you make any kind of assumption, the room is built for her protection. It is invulnerable to all damage, and she can still hear and see us. However, we will be unable to hear her from inside. I am monitoring her at all times, so if she passes out or anything of the sort, she will be taken care of. I would hate for a body to go to such a waste, after all..." Ignoring the snickering voice, Robin glared at the ring of podiums once more, determination now filling her as she was the first of them to step forward.

Others began to follow suit, and before long, all of them returned to their places they had stood only a few days ago, only short a few others this time around. The lights around them began to dim, and once again only the chandelier above them remained lit, fully illuminating all of them, each of them eyeing one another cautiously. _A killer is among us.. Who can we trust?_ Robin thought to herself. The intercom began once more, and the headmaster's voice initiated the second trial, this time over the death of Luigi.

"Now then, I shall begin with a basic explanation of the class trial. During the trial, each of you will present your arguments for who the culprit is and collectively vote for who you believe is responsible. If the majority vote correctly, the individual responsible, the blackened, will face **punishment**. However, if the vote picks the wrong person, each of your besides the blackened will face **punishment** and the blackened will be allowed relief from their bracelet and will walk the ceremony for their graduation. Reminder that refusing to vote at all will be considered insubordination and will result in immediate **punishment**."

"So Peach is entirely exempt from this trial?" Samus asked, her eyes casting an irritated look.

"That is correct. Due to her current situation, she is only able to listen and watch on as you all fight vigilantly for whatever decision you come towards! Isn't it just stressful thinking about it?" The headmaster teased at her, Samus snorting.

"And if she had valuable information, or if say she was the one responsible-"

"She is only exempt from participating in the trial, not from the following decisions to come. If you all vote incorrectly or if it is found that she is the blackened, then appropriate measures will be taken, that I can guarantee you. Again, I am as much involved in this as the rest of you are, so I only want this to be as fair as possible."

"If this-a was a fair trial, that chick would-a be here!" Wario exclaimed, an irritated look on his face, one none of the others have yet seen.

"I cannot help but agree with him," Zelda added. "If she is retaining important knowledge to this trial, would it not be fair for her to reveal it to us?"

"I think this is only because she knows exactly who it is," Dark Pit chimed in, his eyes shut, everyone else turning to face him now. "Think about it: if what we're assuming is that she was attacked by the culprit and left for dead, wouldn't it make sense that she would know who done it, even if she didn't remember at the time? Given a bit more rest, I'm sure it'll eventually pop into her head, and thus create an unfair opportunity for the culprit."

Various chattering sounded throughout the room, some of them accusations and others angry retorts, but Robin breathed in deeply, closing her eyes, meditating. The room began to fade away, and that scene on the hill played out once more, the wind blowing past her hair, the sky above her clear and bright. _You've got to get them back on track, Robin,_ a voice called out to her. She didn't turn to face him, however acknowledging the truth behind his words. _I will._

"Let's start by going over a few things we do know about the time of death," Robin said, silencing the room. "Besides knowing that it happened during breakfast time, we can also mark down that it occurred in the boiler room."

"This is obvious stuff?" Dark Pit chimed coldly, to which Robin ignored him, continuing on.

"Not going over the initial body Peach and I had discovered, something that conflicts with this knowledge was the discovery of something within the room. Something that seems to almost imply that this was planned several hours before the murder occurred." The room remained silent for a few moments after Robin's statement, with Pit finally breaking it.

"Do you mean the blood stains on the back of the boiler room door?"

Robin nodded her head. "Precisely. I think the culprit and the victim had struggled in the boiler room itself, thus leading to the stains on the door. If they were from the victim upon the impact from the boiler's explosion, then it wouldn't have been dried up."

"Now, this may be accurate, but I think you're failing to go over something fairly important," Samus said. "What about the body you and Peach discovered initially? Not all of us were there, so we don't know what was happening besides you two."

"And with one of you locked away, it leaves you, Robin, as the only witness," Zelda added on, her words almost feeling like weights on Robin's shoulders. "Which can almost appear as if it were convenient for you to twist the story to your liking... Of course, I would hate to assume that much of you."

"W-We can't forget that she did already lie to us..." Lucas whimpered, his words stinging like a hot needle on Robin's skin. She began to feel all of their eyes turn towards her now, her calm demeanor slightly breaking in from the pressure. _Dammit, they're right. Was this planned all along by the culprit?! I need to somehow back my claims up..._

"Let us not yet rule out Ms. Robin's word!" Corrin cried out, her hands planted firmly on the podium. "She has worked hard the last few days to recover our trust! She would not go and throw it away so callously for something she did not want to begin with!"

"While it's that kinda line of thought that'll get you killed," Falcon retorted, pressing the palm of his hand against his forehand, "I do agree that Robin is innocent. And unfortunately, most of my reasoning is gonna be based off of trust alone."

"Perhaps then we should begin to suspect whoever initially recommended the reclusive location to Luigi," Dark Pit said, his face grinning. "Was it their intention to keep the second weakest member alone from everyone else? Maybe their goal was to break their sanity first and cause them to off themselves?"

"Can you not say things like that man?!" Pit shouted back, frowning. "You're making it sound like one of us are some kinda psychopath!"

"They've-a gotta be ballsier than Wario to try somethin' so low, so awful, sooo, just TERRRRIBLE!" Wario exclaimed, throwing his hands up towards the ceiling, his mouth widely agape.

"If we are going to blame that individual," Samus replied, ignoring the previous voice, "then that person responsible would be me." Pit ceased his arguement with Dark Pit and turned to face her, his eyes wide open, Dark Pit simply grinning even wider now, cocking an eyebrow at her. _That's right, that second day Falcon and I were exploring the building.._

 _"S-Samus found-a this room for me," Luigi replied... "It'sa perfect! Won't cause-a too much noise and bother the others-a..."_

Robin cleared her throat and looked towards Dark Pit, her mind still racing between thoughts. _But was it really to just seclude him from the others?_ "I don't think we should just yet jump to conclusions over something like this. After all, if I remember correctly, Samus was working on a map of the facility and Luigi told Falcon and myself that he was wanting an area away from the rest of us to work in." She briefly glanced over towards Samus who had her eyes still focused on Dark Pit, her intense stare meeting his malicious one.

"So then you didn't set him up," Dark Pit replied, picking his ear at the same time, "and it was just a coincidence that he decided to pick such a far off location. Can anyone confirm if he ever left the place though? Or did he just set up tent and decide to swear the rest of us off?"

"I don't ever remember seein' the guy leave, really," Bowser finally chimed in. "From what I understand, he was so dead set on his work that he didn't ever find the time to come socialize with the rest of us..."

"There w-were a few times he came out," Lucas replied timidly, all the attention turning towards the frail child now, "but he wouldn't r-really say much to me or Corrin b-besides hi or how t-the princess was doing..."

"I think while we're on this topic, it would be a good idea if we went ahead and clarified where everyone was at when our bracelets went off," Lucina said, her words cut off shortly by Bowser.

"So none of you took the time to check up on him? Not a single one of you assholes?!"

"And you did?" Samus shouted back at him, her words filled with the same malice as his. "Allegedly, you were spending most of your time with somebody else who is suspiciously absent now from this trial. Don't think I'm going to just **drop that** either. And another-"

Falcon now slammed his hands onto the podium, groaning loudly. "Argh, can we stop just pointing fingers and yelling at one another?! This kinda crap isn't going to get us anywhere! We're losing focus on the point of this trial!"

"It's because somebody here keeps feeling the need to instigate the rest of us!" Pit shouted back, pointing towards his opposite, who only replied with his signature grin. "It's almost as if it's on purpose, too!"

"Even if I wanted to check up on him, I couldn't! We've got history between us, after all!" Bowser yelled, almost roaring. The room turned back into chaos, with several people now talking over one another. Once again, the truth began to escape them, and Robin focused her mind. She looked over towards Pikachu who was calling after her, its eyes worriedly looking back between the rest of the room and Robin. Robin smiled softly and nodded her head, clearing her throat once more. However, before she could speak, someone else began before her.

"I think the real reason we're stuck trying to figure out how to start this thing is because there was a lack of a body at the scene," Dark Pit said. "Being able to pin-point injuries or weapons used would help us narrow down the culprit real quick. Instead we're busy arguing until Robin can figure out who the blackened is."

Robin seemed at a loss for words momentarily, taken aback by his words, with others chiming in now, notably Falcon who seemed to be losing his cool. "You make it sound like we're all just riding backseat waiting for an opportunity to come up! Like none of us did any kind of work during the investigation or anything like that!"

"It seems like Robin was just about to, which made me think if anyone else besides her could," Dark Pit replied, sneering at the end of his words. "I mean, I already know who the killer is, but it's fun watching each of you squirm around like this, awkwardly trying to avoid the subject at hand."

"You know who the blackened is?!" Pit exclaimed, almost in disbelief. "But you haven't said a word about it!"

"He's just trying to distract us," Robin finally said, eyeing Dark Pit. "Pay no attention to him." _But would it be such a far-fetched idea that he does know who the culprit is? Thinking back to when we found Peach on the balcony, he did mention he had saved her life. Was it from her trying to jump off, or was it something else..._ "Regardless, we need to get back on track. I think this might be an important time to talk about what it was that Luigi was working on these last few days."

Falcon shook his head, gritting his teeth over Dark Pit still, finally turning his attention away from him. "It was that cassette player, right?"

"Ah, you mean the device Ms. Samus pointed out for us?" Corrin exclaimed, almost appearing glad that the tension was somewhat relieving. "She mentioned it could play other machines called tapes! Remember the one we listened to together, Ms. Robin?"

"I think he was working on that, as well as something else," Robin replied, crossing her arms. _Remember back to the message on the cassette player. He was telling us how he planned to escape. And the day before too.._ "He informed me of some sort of device he was going to use to escape the facility, and I highly doubt he meant this thing."

"But if he was planning to escape, just how was he going to pull it off?" Zelda asked curiously. "This prison is quite well guarded. Even with our powers, it feels useless fighting against the walls of this building."

"Maybe... Maybe he was intending to kill somebody?" Lucina quietly spoke up, her words echoing throughout the room. "I mean, if he got away with it, that means he would be freed from here, right?"

Robin paused briefly before shaking her head, but this time Corrin spoke out. "But his message- Mr. Luigi's message said he planned to return to rescue us!" She shouted out, almost on the verge of tears. "Why would Mr. Luigi intend to save us if he was going to escape by murdering one of us!?"

"Why did he spend all that time creating that device anyways?" Falcon asked calmly, his temper dying down. "Was it just to leave us a goodbye message?"

"If he escaped, how did he intend to disable his bracelet?" Zelda added on, her hand gripping her chin. "To my understanding, the bracelet would explode if we were to leave the premises; did he have a solution to that as well?"

"What if somebody asked him to create the cassette player?" Lucas asked curiously, Robin turning to him with a shocked expression on her face. _I didn't once consider that he would have created it for somebody else! But why..? Would it mean that... the culprit possibly asked him to?_

From his seemingly lonely podium, Dark Pit chuckled aloud, echoing the hollow room. "Finally, you noticed this. Did you really think he spent all of that time working on it for something so trivial like that pathetic message? He couldn't care less about half of us! No, he was put up to it. In fact, I'm sure his message reveals this very truth! Robin, if you'd play the message once more."

Almost hesitating, Robin slowly pulled the cassette player from her pocket and the tape as well, placing it back inside the player. She pressed the play button, and his voice echoed the room, as if he had returned from the dead. _"M-My name is-a Luigi... My o-older b-brother is-a Mario... He's-a done so many amazing things I can't-a even think of where to start-a. All our lives, he's-a always been the hero of the day. He's gone-"_

"Wait, no, that's not the right tape," Dark Pit exclaimed, his hand scratching his head. Robin immediately looked up towards him curiously, pressing the pause button on the cassette player. Dark Pit turned towards Corrin, his face slightly scowling now. "Corrin, did you give her both tapes?"

Corrin immediately shook her head, cocking it to the side. "Did you not want her to hear his goodbye message?"

"No, who cares about that! Give her the other one you idiot!"

Her face red now, Corrin looked over at Robin and tossed a second cassette tape to her, looking away afterwards in embarrassment. While the rest of the room remained silent, the feeling of animosity wrung around them, many eyes shooting glaring stares at the wicked member. Robin popped out Luigi's goodbye message and popped in the new tape, pressing it on and bringing Luigi's voice back to life, only this time, shocking Robin and many of the others.

" **HELP-A ME! SOMEBODY, PLEASE-A SAVE ME!** "

 _W-What!?_ Robin's eyes widen in shock as the message replayed itself, repeating the same shocking words she had just heard. _Wait, this isn't right! Or, wait no, this proves my theory! This is my evidence to back my claim up!_

"Who could have recorded such an awful thing..." Falcon said in disgust, covering his mouth with his hand.

"A-Are those h-his last w-words..." Lucas whimpered.

"Wario.. Wario can't even begin to-a say anything about it-a..."

"So you see, it's INCREDIBLY obvious that this thing was created for somebody else to use. Somebody who, might I add, took great use of it for their sick pleasures." Dark Pit sneered, casting a glance over towards Robin now who held a determined look upon her face.

"No, that's not it." Robin's words were bold and backed off Dark Pit slightly, who bit his lip, curiously listening to her response. "It was probably created with the intentions to use against him, and the rest of us. No, this is the voice Peach and I both heard when we first came down into the entryway. This message was on repeat, and at the time I didn't realize it, but it was a bait luring us into the culprit's **trap**." _And we fell for it, dammit! If only I had realized this sooner!_

"So then, Robin, would you care to tell us what exactly you two found at the time of his death?" Zelda asked calmly.

Robin nodded her head, closing her eyes as she visualized the scene once more. "We were originally going to go through the door on the second floor, as it was right down the hall from the cafeteria. However, the door was locked at the time, so we hurried towards the entryway where the boiler room was located, as it was connected to the basement. When we reached the entryway, that very message began to play out, and after a few moments, an explosion occurred, sending his body out in front of us in a large puff of smoke."

"So then you were able to get your eyes on his body?" Pit asked curiously, to which Robin shook her head.

"I was only able to glance at it briefly before I left to go grab the rest of you. At the time, I automatically assumed it was Luigi, as it was wearing his typical green garbs. The body seemed to have been disfigured from the explosion as well, with several bits of shrapnel embedded in it. Along with the smoke, I failed to realize the second part of the culprit's trap."

"Which was?" Samus asked, her voice stern.

"All of that was intentional. The smoke, the shock from his body, and for me to leave afterwards: the culprit intended for whoever was down there at the time to disappear afterwards so that they could hide their evidence. The cleaning supplies in the boiler room would back this claim up as well. Since the mess wouldn't be that devastating, it would only take them a few seconds to create a clean swipe of the crime scene, thus when I returned with the rest of you all, the body was gone, and I was left speechless."

"But you weren't the only one there, were you?" Corrin asked timidly, appearing still offended by Dark Pit's earlier statements. "Ms. Peach was there as well I thought..."

"She was. That was a mistake on the culprit's part, I'm fairly sure," Robin added in, murmuring sounding across the room now. "I believe the culprit thought both of us had left, so when they began to clean the scene up, they were happened upon by Peach. I think this is a great time to lead this into something that you mentioned, Zelda."

"Oh? And what is that?" Zelda replied curiously, Robin continuing her analysis.

"That's that you heard some sort of commotion from outside the dining hall, correct?" Zelda nodded her head quickly, Robin continuing on. "I believe that the culprit chased Peach back through the basement and into the second floor, where the two engaged briefly before Peach escaped into the dormitories. This can also be backed up by Dark Pit, who was the one responsible for causing her loss of consciousness as well as another important discovery."

"Whoa whoa whoa, hold on for a second," Falcon exclaimed, holding his hands up. "This is one heck of an info dump, kiddo. You gotta break these things down and tell us where you're getting this information from. For starters, the second floor door was locked, wasn't it? You just said moments ago you and Peach originally tried to go through it."

"You moron, she already did explain that," Dark Pit replied, yawning. "But I guess for a simpleton you'll need another explanation, if you don't mind Robin." Falcon gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, glaring towards the younger member as Robin spoke up.

"That's fine. I will be happy to." Robin breathed in deeply and relaxed her mind, bringing back the points she had gone over, only to break them down further. "Starting with Peach's disappearance, was it not odd that we didn't run back into her on the way down to the entryway?"

"I'm pretty sure there's only one way up to the second floor from there..." Lucas added.

"Technically there's two ways, but the second way was locked at the time according to Robin," Pit replied, Robin nodding her head.

"Because she couldn't have run up the main stairway, that leaves two options: the auditorium, or the boiler room. Since as far as I know there is no path leading to the second floor from the auditorium or the classroom halls, we can scratch that off. That leaves just the basement as to where she could have run to, and from there the second floor." _I've got to be on the right track,_ Robin told herself, sure of her words. _I can't let up now either!_

"As for the second floor door being locked... I actually haven't figured that out just yet. I'm not sure how Peach managed to get past it, besides one possibility..."

"Oh, you mean crawling through that small tunnel!" Corrin exclaimed.

"Exactly. It's just the right size for somebody as small as myself or Corrin to fit through." Robin drew her hand to her chin and rested her arm on her other one, pondering now though. "The only problem though is that I'm not sure if Peach could actually fit through the air duct."

"And what if the culprit could or couldn't either?" Bowser asked, Falcon now speaking up.

"Well, whether or not the culprit did or didn't go through, somebody had to of, since there were traces of somebody crawling through one vent to another," Falcon paused briefly, looking around as everyone seemed stunned by his revelation. "Hey, before any of you start to doubt me, Robin was with me! There were plates of food left in front of the door and a very obvious path was made through them."

"Waaa, that seems like such-a waste..." Wario whimpered, visible tear drops appearing around his body. Corrin reached over and began to pat the solemn man, while the others ignored him, focusing on this new info spread out to them.

"So if somebody used the air vents to travel, why bother opening the second floor door?" Lucina asked, her voice still as hesitant as the beginning of the trial. "Assuming that both Peach and the culprit traveled through them, why would either of them open the door if they've already escaped the basement? It doesn't add up."

"Peach might've gone back for something and opened the door...?" Pit thought aloud to everyone, cocking his head. "But then why would she bother locking it in the first place?"

"That would mean she lied to Robin when they first tried to go through it," Samus added. "Which only further points to Peach being suspicious of something, or at least hiding something from the rest of us."

"Pika pika!" The mouse Pokemon tried to chime in, but only fell on deaf ears as several of them began to add their own thoughts to the topic at hand. Robin alone heard Pikachu, and too agreed that something seemed off. _Let's assume that Peach did try to go back through, one piece of evidence that backs this up would be her inviting me to bring food to Luigi... That means she did plan everything in advance, and that she purposely lured me down with the intentions of doubly using me as I've already lost the trust of most of them..._

"Whether or not Peach is the culprit, I think there's something important you all are overlooking now," Zelda said, most everyone else ceasing their own discussions. "As I had carefully looked over her body when healing her more severe wounds, I failed to note any signs of food anywhere on her body."

"You missed it perhaps?" Pit asked, Zelda shaking her head in response.

"I had removed all of her old garments, carefully inspecting them while replacing her wardrobe. I would have noticed if something besides her injuries were on them."

"Then if Peach didn't use the air vent to travel, maybe she did go through the second floor door?" Falcon asked curiously. "And whoever did go through them opened the door for her?"

"It almost sounds like you're implying Peach worked alongside the culprit," Dark Pit replied, his expression bored, his arms crossed along his chest. "Which I think would really make for a great twist, but unfortunately, no, is wrong. There's absolutely, positively, no effin' way the princess worked alongside the culprit in this case!" His words came off almost sarcastically, and Falcon just tilted his head, eyeing Dark Pit who in return grinned back at him.

Pit sighed, shaking his head. "Maybe instead of playing around with us, actually help out for once? All of our lives are at stake right now, ya know!"

"Well, it's just that I know a **secret** that none of you know about," Dark Pit grinned maliciously, his face almost twisted as Robin glared at him. "But we'll get to that eventually. Why spoil the fun now while Robin is so hard at work on unraveling the truth on her own?"

 _Is he just messing with us or.._ Robin thought carefully about his words. True, it seems that Dark Pit would rather cause mischief among them all instead of provide actual guidance, but what if he actually did? _Was what you told me before... The truth to this case?_ _If so, how can I bring this up..._

"Waaaaaaaa! Wario feel that we-a just are goin' in circles, ya?!" Wario cried out, spinning around rapidly in front of his podium. "Wario listen to one thing, and then somebody go and bring up somethin' else, and then Wario listens to something else and none of these things just-a add up! Wario is tired of it!"

"He does kinda have a point..." Pit sighed once more. "We aren't staying focused on one topic at a time. All we've really determined so far is that the culprit killed Luigi with the explosion and then hid his body somewhere."

"Wait, that isn't all of it," Robin stopped him, pointing a finger out. _No, whatever it is Dark Pit is talking about will have to wait. Wario is right, we need to clear up the remaining things about Luigi's death. Maybe by doing so, we can narrow down who was where when the second door was unlocked._ "I agree that we've been slightly off-track, but all of this will come together at the end. For now, we should bring the discussion back towards Luigi, specifically, the cause of his death."

"Was that not the explosion from that massive metal box?" Lucina asked, Robin shaking her head immediately.

"That was part of the culprit's trap. Something so obvious, so in our face that we just had to accept as the truth. Luigi did die when the explosion went off, but it wasn't to the boiler exploding." Robin focused on the room at the time when they were investigating it. Something stuck out to her, something that just didn't seem quite right. _The smell inside of that room... The scorch marks on the smaller tanks... The main boiler tank was simply a distraction!_

"So? If it wasn't the explosion that killed him, what was it?" Samus asked, her eyes glaring at Robin now.

"He was electrocuted in one of the smaller tanks." Robin's words froze the rest of them as a brief silence overcame the room, before several voices all chimed up at the same time.

"Electrocuted?!"

"But we didn't see his body?!"

"Pika?"

"How can you even be sure!"

"The tank in question was covered in scorch marks that could've been easily dismissed as a result from the explosion," Dark Pit added, Robin looking over at him curiously. "However, added in with the strange smell as well as the burn marks, and one more important piece of evidence. This goes back to what you were talking about with the main tank being a distraction."

Robin nodded her head, taking back over. "The explosion was funneled forward, towards the boiler room door. There wasn't any damage on the other small tank, nor were there pieces of shrapnel or metal anywhere else but besides in the bait body. Such an explosion would've been caused by not the boiler itself, but something else entirely. Perhaps this something else being that other device Luigi was working on!"

"The one he intended to escape the facility with," Dark Pit chuckled. "How ironic it is that it was used against him to help the culprit instead attempt to escape this place!"

"Along with this, there's-" Before Robin could continue, another voice picked up, stopping her abruptly mid-sentence.

"Now, okay, I've gotta step in kiddo," Falcon exclaimed, slamming his hands down. "You mean to tell me that this alleged device Luigi worked on was used as a bait, and instead something zapped him in one of the tanks?! Come on, now this almost feels like a stretch to have to follow along!"

Robin sighed, shaking her head. _If you want evidence, very well then.._ "What part of it are you failing to understand?" Her words felt like a cold chill running across Falcon's back, but he refused to back down, leaning further towards her.

"Where the hell did you even come to the conclusion that something had actually pierced his body- or, I'm sorry, his 'bait body'?! You said it yourself earlier, that because of the smoke, most of his corpse was shrouded and you couldn't make out much besides his clothes. How does that lead into you determining that he was electrocuted in another tank?"

"The body that I saw was simply a trap. There are three facts to back this up," Robin breathed in deeply, focusing her mind on retaliating Falcon's rebuttals. "The first being the smell of the body. If it really had just occurred then and there, the body wouldn't have had such a terrible odor."

"It takes several hours before a body begins to smell from decomposing," Samus added on. "That fact alone should have immediately lit a red flag."

Robin continued on. "Second, the lack of blood at the scene. A fresh body would have been much, much harder to have cleaned up than say the carcass of a much deceased one. There would have been a lot more blood to deal with, compared to the single dried stain on the back of the boiler room door. Third, the most prominent piece of evidence being something that we had discovered inside a crate in the basement..."

"Ah, could you be referring to that pig's body!" Corrin exclaimed. "It was covered in metal pieces, but now I think I understand what Ms. Robin is trying to say..."

"The pieces of shrapnel in the pig's body were from the device that had ruptured the boiler tank. As for the pig itself, it could have easily been taken from the storage facility where all the other food supplies are located." Robin looked up towards Falcon who finally backed down, his arms crossed, his face slightly sour. Robin smiled slightly, shrugging her shoulders. "Happy?" Falcon remaining silent, it was now someone else who had spoke up, gaining Robin's attention from Falcon.

"So the killer went through all this trouble just to obfuscate the cause of death?" Samus questioned, crossing her arms. "There are so many things that could've gone wrong for them. In fact, if your theory is correct, things DID go poorly for the culprit as Peach had stumbled across them."

"And for whatever reason, she was unable to determine who the culprit was at that time," Falcon added in, biting on his lower lip. "Was she beaten to such a state she could've overlooked this detail?"

"Her wounds were fairly severe.." Lucina quietly said, looking away from the rest of them, almost with disappointment on her face. Just glancing over at her, Robin could tell how hurt she must've been, knowing that somebody was simply acting along with them just to pull off this vicious trap.

"But I do not believe they were severe enough to cause her amnesia," Zelda brought up. "She did bring up one single detail of them, after all."

"'A bright color'," Bowser said. "That's been stuck on my mind for a while now as well. I mean, some of us kinda have bright garbs on, or have sort of a bright look to 'em, take Robin's pink hair for example."

"Or your beastly look," Samus muttered, ignoring the glare the previous talker had shot her.

"I want to bring us back to something you mentioned, Robin," Pit asked her, tapping the podium as if he were thinking aloud. "You said that it was electrocution that was the cause of death, right? If that's the case, don't we know of, um, a certain someone who can create electricity at will...?" At this moment, the room grew silent, and eyes began to dart back and forth, some of them suspicious, others confused. Robin cocked her head, before realizing who it was Pit was referring to.

"Are you talking about P-Pikachu?!" Lucas exclaimed, his eyes widening as the room turned to look at the small mouse Pokemon, who simply blinked several times, frowning and shaking its head quickly.

"Is that what that **thing** does?" Falcon said, scratching his head beneath his helmet. "It can shoot out electricity? Well damn, it doesn't really get more obvious than that!"

"It also helps that it's small enough to navigate through the air vents with ease," Samus added on, her eyes stern. "Perhaps by working alongside a mastermind, it was able to successfully pull off this murder. Which if that's the case-"

"Wait a moment, a mastermind of the case?!" Bowser exclaimed. "How does that work out in who's considered eligible for graduation or whatever?!"

"Do they both get to leave, or just one?"

"Do they both receive punishment if they fail?"

"What the heck is a Pikachu anyways?!"

Robin began to clear her throat before another noise broke through and gained everyone's attention. The headmaster's voice sounded through the intercom and each of them remained silent as his wicked voice returned once more. "I see this is a perfect opportunity to address another point of your rule book. Then so be it! Rule #10: If there is a mastermind and a killer working together on a murder, only the killer is considered the blackened, thus they will be the only one eligible for graduation."

"Waaa-HA-HA!" Wario cried out, clapping together his massive hands. "So then it-a was a waste to work-a with that thing! It would-a only been able to hitch a ride outta here!"

"Indeed, it was perhaps an oversight on my end to ignore the possibility of there being such a situation," the headmaster said, sadness coasting along his words. "However, that is assuming there were two people involved in our dear beloved Luigi's death. Who knows? There's still plenty of time left in this trial, after all!"

"I do agree with him," Robin finally said, garnering the spotlight of the room once more. "We shouldn't draw any kind of conclusions just yet."

"But I mean, while I understand what you're trying to get at," Falcon replied cautiously, "it does seem almost like a coincidence that it just so happens that we have someone here who can create electricity. Both you and Dark Pit seemed fairly certain that is the cause of death, after all."

"Pika! Pikachu!" The small creature cried out, still shaking its head, its paws grasping to the sides of the podium.

"Are you so certain that it's only Pikachu that can create a shock?" Robin retorted, her eyes narrowing on Falcon, who in return cocked an eyebrow. "I think it's a safe assumption that there are several people among us capable of many acts of magics, including myself. Just because Pikachu is the easiest answer shouldn't mean that we pick it immediately."

"After all, a fatal lapse in judgement could lead to all of our deaths," Dark Pit grinned.

"Well, that's what I meant by I understand what you're trying to tell us," Falcon replied. "That we shouldn't just jump on it right away. It's just, I mean, the fact of the bright color too that adds up against Pikachu. But no, I know what you're going to say, so don't worry I'll wait until we're absolutely sure about our decision before making it."

"Before we do continue on this topic, I want us to clarify something that we all had drifted away from earlier," Zelda said. "Why was Peach attacked?"

Robin glanced over at Dark Pit, who was already staring at her, nodding his head. She cleared her throat, taking the moment to address Zelda's question. "I believe this will answer a few other questions we all had earlier as well. Going back over what I had brought up before, Peach had run into the culprit inside the boiler room. Our culprit at the time must've been wearing a disguise, one that would clearly help them avoid any suspicion."

"So the culprit wanted to get rid of Peach since she knew about their trap," Pit said, staring off inquisitively into the ceiling. "A way to cut any loose ends I guess."

"Not only that, but she would have evidence that the original body was a fake, and that the explosion wasn't the cause of death," Robin added on. "I believe Dark Pit can attest to this."

"About time we got back to this," he replied, almost sounding excited. "Why, yes, Peach did have something in her possession that could have been used to reveal the killer trap. Something so obvious that it's almost humiliating for the blackened to have let this slip up! Something that-"

"Yeah yeah, come on, get to the point already!" Falcon shouted out impatiently, Dark Pit glaring back at him, sighing.

"Very well then. She had his clothes, or more specifically, the clothes that the bait body was wearing."

"So you attacked her because you thought she was the culprit?" Lucas asked, all eyes turning onto Dark Pit immediately. The latter simply chuckled, shaking his head.

"Ahh, if only it was that simple. No, I stopped her from doing something much, _much_ worse." Dark Pit looked up towards Robin and smiled, a cold chill running down her spine from the sight. "Have any idea what it could've been?"

"Was it that Ms. Peach was trying to toss the evidence away?" Corrin asked.

"She was the culprit then, after all?"

"Quit blaming her dammit!"

"No, it isn't any of that." Robin spoke with confidence in her voice, but it almost seemed like a lie as she was nervous to think what she was about to say was true. _I don't want to believe in this possibility, I want to trust in her, but..._

"What could it be then, Robin? Something besides the obvious, easy answers?" Dark Pit sneered, taunting her to reveal the truth.

Robin sighed, shutting her eyes briefly. The truth of this answer hurt her, and it was obvious why. _For Peach to have succumbed to such a possibility, is it my fault then? I failed to unite us all, and perhaps that alone is the sole reason she sought after this escape. She must've felt pressured, from the death of someone close to her as well as whatever it was she saw on her tablet. This truth alone..._ "She was trying to jump off to kill herself."

Bowser's jaw was held agape as he stared blankly at Robin, unable to process what it was she had just said. "I-I.."

"Suicide?!" Falcon exclaimed, slamming his hands down. "What the hell!? But why!"

"No.." Zelda held her own hand over her mouth, looking away from the others. "I had briefly considered that thought, but to think of it being more than fiction.."

"Between the stress of Luigi's death and the dread of someone chasing after her, what options did she have?" Dark Pit coolly said, his words unmoved by the other's emotions. "And you can't feel sorry for her either, it was a selfish decision she was trying to make."

"Selfish?!" Pit cried out, gritting his teeth. "Can you stop it with the taunts and the-"

"All of us have to participate in this game, one way or another," Dark Pit interrupted him before he could continue. "Most of you all want to hide away from the reality of our situations. You guys are all afraid of it, so instead of pointing fingers at others, you hide behind the word 'trust.' You ignore the truth of where we are and what we're having to do because each of you are more concerned about each other's feelings. You overlook the obvious solutions just because it's hidden beneath this reality you're trying so desperately to avoid."

Silence fell back over them all. Dark Pit wasn't wrong, after all: each of them were terrified of the situation they were placed in. Confusion and doubt gnawed at them as they played along with the vicious game they were dropped into, with no memories prior of their past lives. Robin gulped hearing all of this but she knew he wasn't wrong. And she knew that because of that truth, she had to help them all find the answer. The answer that would save them from the impending doom.

"So we're back at square one," Falcon finally said, kicking his foot against the base of the podium. "We don't have much else to go off of, and I feel like we're about to start running in circles again." _Falcon's right. I want to bring us back on topic, but I think I've exhausted all of my options..._

"There has to be something else that we've yet to bring up," Bowser said, his face casting a worried look. _I'm trying to figure something out. I can't let us fail now!_

"What if we went over our alibis? Where all everyone was at the time of the bracelets going off," Pit asked, looking between each of them.

"I think with the exception of Mr. Dark Pit, Ms. Peach, Ms. Robin, and myself, everyone was in the cafeteria as it was breakfast time," Corrin replied, shaking her head.

"Wait, that isn't right," Robin immediately brought up. _Maybe we can build something off of this..._ "To my understanding, a few others were not present in the cafeteria with you guys as well. It should be Zelda, Samus, and of course Luigi, am I correct?"

"I was in the kitchen cleaning up," Zelda replied. "So that would leave me off your list."

"Then with Peach and Robin having alibis for each other, the only people who don't have one would be Samus, Dark Pit, and Corrin," Falcon said, rubbing his chin. "I think it's time to settle this case once and for all."

"Ah, I suppose I do not have one for myself..." Corrin said worriedly, glancing between each of them. "This would be difficult for me to explain."

"Likewise for myself," Samus replied, her arms still crossed, a cool look over her face. "And it appears to be the same for you too, kid."

Dark Pit shook his head, his demeanor still unwavering. "Perhaps it would be if you weren't paying attention to this trial at all. My alibi has been built up by the discussions the rest of you have been having. Between the run-around each of you have had, it's obvious that had I been the one in the boiler room at the time, I would've run into someone on my way back into the dormitories, maybe the killer themselves. If I wasn't already there, I wouldn't have been able to stop Peach from her selfish act."

"Dark Pit isn't wrong," Robin added on. "If he really did remain in the dormitories the entire time until we ran into him, then his alibi is solid. While the possibility of traveling to there via the air vents could be a thing, I don't seem to recall an easy enough path from the basement or storage room to the dormitories."

"Which leaves us with two: Samus and Corrin."

Corrin nervously glanced between each of the members, her hands held together tightly, sweat beading down her forehead. Almost opposite her however, Samus remained cool in composure, breaking not a single sweat during their interrogative stares. _Their silence isn't helping either of their cases, and if it really is one of them, I've got to figure out how and when they were able to slip into the basement and back into the storage room._ Before Robin could continue, Dark Pit's voice broke out.

"Have the two argue for their innocence! That's how we'll decide our culprit!" His voice was excited and he held his arms out, raising them towards the sky. "After all, the easiest way to expose a liar is by cornering them psychologically. Only then will they reveal their true self as a liar- hiding beneath a layer of deceit!"

"Can we be so sure that it is one of these two?" Zelda asked, Dark Pit instead ignoring her and continuing on.

"If we want to catch the culprit, I suggest that the two current suspects argue against each other. We've wasted too much time already, no more pointless deductions! All we need is for them to fight for their lives!" Dark Pit's eyes seemed to twist in delight of the situation, an intense feeling covering them all. "We'll catch the culprit in their lies when we find a contradiction! We'll scare the culprit until they screw up! That's how a true class trial works."

"It is such an unbelievable request from me at this moment," Corrin rushed out, her voice sounding weak now. "But I need you all to trust what I'm going to-"

"People you trust and defend will ultimately **betray** you." Dark Pit's words cut her off and sliced her back with such coldness, his expression reflecting this statement. "This is a game of **suspicion**."

"If we ignore the fluff around most of what Dark Pit was saying," Samus finally said, breaking her silence. "It really is a more effective method. If one of us are really the culprit, then the other is clearly the innocent one. That innocent one should know who the guilty one is."

"If you know you're not the culprit, then you can just accuse the other person," Dark Pit added on, raising his hand up to examine his palm. "Which means, there is one person among us who definitely knows who the culprit is."

"And how do you expect us to start this?" Samus retorted, Dark Pit shaking his head now.

"If you guys really do need some help getting this started, I can give out the first topic. Something that none of us have surprisingly yet brought up!" Dark Pit reached from behind him and pulled out a small black rectangle, one that Robin immediately recognized as the tablets containing the motives sent out from the headmaster. _Ah! Is this the clue you mentioned from before?!_ "But that's not all..." Dark Pit reached behind him with his other hand and plucked out a second tablet as well.

Across the room, Robin noticed Samus's face quickly drop her calm demeanor, showing agitation and... fear? She turned back towards Dark Pit as he continued on. "At the end of our investigation time, I took it upon myself to grab two articles of evidence I thought would be crucial in determining the culprit. Specifically, I grabbed the motives of the two people I had concluded were the most likely suspects."

"How are those suppose to help us at all!" Corrin shouted, emotion that surprised most of them. "Those do not have anything important on them, and you do not need to reveal what is on them either!"

"My my, someone is feeling preeeetty nervous, aren't they?" Dark Pit snickered, holding the first tablet out in front of him. Corrin's eyes were furious and she began to pant, watching as Dark Pit pressed the side and brought the tablet to life. "Let's see just what is on her, maybe something so motivating it would drive you to **murder** one of your friends."

Each of them watched in silence as an image began to cross over the screen, sound coming out not long after, the narrator of it immediately recognized as the headmaster. "For you, Corrin, it is but your closest family members of the Hoshido clan. Your younger siblings, Takumi and Sakura, along with your older siblings, Hinoka and Ryoma. You of course care for them, as they are your family bound to you by blood! But is that all of it?"

" **Stop** **this** , now! Dark Pit, please, **stop** **it**!" Corrin cried out, shaking her head violently, her words full of hurt as the video continued to play on, an awkward aura overcoming most of them now. "It's so shameful, please!"

"No, you Corrin, you care deeply for one of your siblings, so much as to find yourself **alone** in his company more often than a brother and sister should! Ohoho..." At this point, Robin immediately realized what was being revealed, and she looked up at Dark Pit, scowling her face, seeing only enjoyment on the twisted expression of his. "You couldn't ever bear to be away from Ryoma, could you? Oh, and the thought of him with his retainer Kagero would just drive you **wild**!"

"Please... no more..." Corrin whimpered out, slumping towards the bottom of the podium, a single arm grabbing the side of it. Dark Pit seeming to have his fill shut the tablet off, setting it aside as a silence fell over each and every one of them aside from the sound of tears and panting coming from one of them.

"You sick bastard," Falcon gritted his teeth, his fists clenched once again. "How the hell was that going to help us?! You knew exactly what you were doing showing us that bullshit! It was all for your messed up pleasure!"

"That was seriously messed up..." Bowser muttered, his eyes averting the looks of any of the others.

"Corrin..." Zelda said quietly, her eyes looking towards her direction. Robin, while feeling sorrow for her, thought to herself the importance of this act. _He wasn't just showing that video off to humiliate her... No, that was the final piece of evidence I needed to close this out! This whole time, this is what he was trying to get at?!_

"Now, as much as I would **love** to show Samus's tablet, unfortunately I don't think there's much reason to at this point," Dark Pit chuckled, tossing them both away. Samus immediately shot a glare at him, narrowing her eyes.

"And why is that?"

"Well, it doesn't take a detective to realize that Corrin isn't the culprit!" Dark Pit exclaimed, clapping his hands together. "Do you think somebody with as much pride as herself would've allowed me to continue playing as much of the video as I did? No, she would have long revealed she was guilty before allowing that horrifying, disgusting truth to come out!"

"Samus..?" Lucas asked, each of them turning to look towards her now. She simply snorted, shaking her head at his accusation.

"You're seriously going to base your accusation off of the romantic feelings of a kid?" Samus sounded almost as if she was scoffing at him, to which Robin now finally spoke up, an anger in her voice.

"While what Dark Pit did was unforgivable, I don't think he's wrong either." Robin breathed in deeply and continued on, her words confident. "It took me a while to realize it, but there's something off about your alibi, Samus."

"My alibi? Was it not determined that I didn't have one, and thus this ridiculous trial between the two of us-" Before she could finish her sentence, Robin cut her off.

"No, not of where you were at the time of the murder. The one Zelda told me." Pausing briefly, Robin glanced between each of them, knowing she had their full attention. _It's time to hit her hard with the truth!_ "Zelda mentioned when she ran into the storage room, she only saw you inside. While that alone is suspicious enough, given that we know the culprit had traveled to the storage room from the basement, you had to of remained on the second floor during that entire time."

"How does this even come close to pinning me at the scene of the crime?" Samus asked inquisitively, raising an eyebrow.

"You told us the substance in the entryway, in front of the boiler room door, was bleach."

Robin paused once more after finishing her statement, a brief silence covering the room as slowly, it began to dawn on some of the others what Robin was implying. Falcon now took the opportunity to speak up, working off of what Robin started. "You never came downstairs with us... you stayed on the second floor the entire time!"

"We would have noticed if you came down with us initially when the bracelets went off, " Robin continued. "Instead, you claimed that you searched the other rooms, never once arriving downstairs with us before we ran into you in the storage room."

"This is bullshit!" Samus retorted, her face flaring up now. "You're going to accuse me over something I said?! And if I told you I overheard it, is that also going to be held against me?!"

"I don't think Zelda ever came downstairs either before all of you guys met up," Dark Pit sneered, a finger being held to the side of his mouth. "Remember what I said? We'll catch the culprit in their lies when we find a **contradiction**. You aren't a terribly good liar, Samus Aran."

"It's dawned on me now too why it was you handed me that map, Samus," Robin continued. "From the very beginning of this, you were plotting to use me to your advantage. If I knew the layout of the building well enough, I would of course use that to my knowledge, such as rushing to the boiler room door from the second floor door. You were hoping I wouldn't notice the air vents that you used to traverse through the rooms either, as you failed to mark them on the map purposely."

"You..." Samus gritted her teeth, her calm demeanor completely gone now as instead a wicked and spiteful one covered her face.

"And I can't believe I didn't realize it sooner, but it was you watching me that night, wasn't it?" Robin continued, her blows still unrelenting. "You were probably observing each and every one of us, trying to figure out how to use our habits against us."

"I think it's time to bring up the final piece of evidence," Dark Pit chimed, grinning widely. "The cheat sheet provided by the headmaster. This time conveniently placed in the dormitory room of one of the two people I had suspected. And would you believe what information was on it?"

"This was the secret you were talking about then," Robin said, not needing to look at him to know he was nodding in delight. "The clue that revealed the identity of the culprit to you."

"I want you to know beforehand that I still had to do my own investigating," Dark Pit replied. "I was still stuck between deciding if it was Samus or Corrin. But upon running into this, why, it was blown way out the water and made so obvious I just cringed at how I missed it!"

"And?" Falcon asked, surely everyone else thinking the same thing.

"I'll read to you all the single line on this sheet," Dark Pit cleared his throat and read aloud, almost pompously as to be more dramatic. "'Did you know that Samus Aran has a special designed space suit that allows her to perform extraordinary acts?' There's actually other things on here like how Pikachu is an electric Pokemon or how Zelda can transform, but none of that mattered. Not after I got my eyes inside that closet in the storage room, after all.."

"That's impossible!" Samus shouted, slamming her hands down on to her podium. "I have the only key to open it!"

"And, that is a wrap," Dark Pit chuckled, Samus freezing up as she realized what it was she said. "I can see some of the others are still lost, so you should do them a favor and explain this case to them, from the beginning." Robin looked up at him to see that he was speaking right back to her, and she nodded her head. Clearing her mind and taking deep breaths, Robin relaxed herself, bringing forth the energy to finish this trial. _It's up to me now, I can't let them down! I've got to bring this all to a close!_

"Starting off from the second day when we arrived here, our culprit immediately sprung into action. She devised several things that needed to happen, and began executing each and every one of them, beginning with finding a reclusive location for her target, Luigi. Along with asking him to develop a specific item, our culprit began mapping out the available locations to us, not for our benefit, but for their advantage. By leaving me with the map, the culprit intended for my word to be lost amidst the brewing distrust that seemed to plague us at the time. This, however, was their first mistake.

A few hours before morning time, our culprit paid Luigi a visit, now using the device he had been developing for them: the cassette player. I'm assuming here that the culprit had beaten Luigi into submission, explaining the blood splatter against the boiler room door. By having him record that plea for help, the culprit knocked him out, setting forth their trap, the first step involving placing Luigi inside the smaller boiler tank.

The culprit then locked the second floor door leading to the basement, leaving the only path available being the boiler room. From here, they grabbed their supplies they had gathered and set their plan into motion. The culprit dressed a pig's body in Luigi's attire and pressed it against the boiler room door. Either by filling the carcass with blood packs or attaching them to the door as well, the culprit intended for the explosion to be messy enough to obscure the truth: that it was a bait.

By using the second device Luigi had been working on, the small explosive mine, the culprit attached it to the main boiler tank, aiming it so as to send the shrapnel forward and into the bait body, also intending the explosion to knock the door open. Once the culprit noticed I began heading down to the first floor, they set a timer off on the device. It was here I wasn't sure as to how the culprit remained in the room, but thanks to Dark Pit's revelation that our culprit had the means necessary, it's clear now. At the same time of the explosion, the culprit sent an electrical shock into the tank Luigi remained in, causing his death to sync up with their trap, thus causing us to believe it was originally the main boiler tank.

From here, the culprit waited to hear me leave, beginning their next step in their trap: cleaning up the evidence from the bait body. With a mop and a few cleaning supplies, they wiped away the blood and leftover bits from the pig, making it appear as if nothing had occurred there. It was here something happened that they didn't anticipate: Peach was still on the first floor, and she was watching the entire thing happen. Peace entered the boiler room, and from there saw our culprit donning an outfit she was unfamiliar with. It was here she tried to escape, and it was here the culprit traveled through the air vents and into the second floor.

Hoping to catch her before she could escape, the culprit must've been waiting for her, only to realize she wasn't coming, either due to fright or because they had left the second floor door to the basement locked. Unlocking it, the culprit ran back into the basement, discovering that Peach had come across the bait body and the clothes of the victim. Chasing her out, the culprit began to overpower her, only to hear somebody else approaching. Quickly escaping via the air vents once more into the storage room, Peach must've ran out into the dormitories and onto the balcony, while our culprit removed their outfit and tried to blend in.

It was here that we finally caught back up to them without realizing what it was they had done, but because of a slip up of something they told us, we were able to pin point them as the culprit. Did I miss anything, Samus Aran?!" All of them stood in silence, Samus's head drooping low as she remained silent, unable to refute anything Robin had just said. Robin sighed deeply, exhaustion finally catching up to her as the intercom once again came to life.

"Well done, once again another fantastic trial performance from each of you!" Not wasting a moment, the screens in front of them on the podiums came to life as the tops were split apart, and he continued to speak to them. "Now then, please place your votes on the screen in front of you. Once you all have locked them in, we shall see if the **blackened** or the **spotless** will prevail!" The podiums rumbled slightly as the screen flashed the words ' **THANK YOU** ' in front of them, a brief silence filling the air as the tally marks were counted up. After a short delay, the screens came back to life, taunting them it felt.

' **SAMUS ARAN HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY! CONGRATULATIONS!** '

"Once more, can we pleeease have a round of applause for Ms. Robin! She has simply done a phenomenal job two trials in a row, oh my goodness what would the rest of you do without her!" None of them spoke up as the awkwardness was apparent between each of them, and the headmaster took the opportunity to continue talking. "Dark Pit too deserves just as much praise, as he did reveal the final nail in the coffin!"

"Let's get this over with already," Samus shouted, her fists clenched tightly as she continued to stare at the floor. "Or set me free if you're going to waste our time instead!"

"Ohh, an eager one then aren't we? Do not free, your punishment will come very shortly as you had failed your task as the blackened!" the headmaster sneered. Samus spoke up once more afterwards, her gaze now turning to each of them.

"Just so we're clear, this was nothing personal against any of you. I held no grudges towards Luigi either; he was just simply the weakest one out of all of us, marking him as the easiest target."

"Is this really your way of apologizing?" Bowser stammered, his face now full of rage. "Do you seriously expect us to forgive you for what you did?! Do you know what it's like to go through such a loss?!" Tears began to roll down his face, and Samus simply shook her head, looking away from him.

"I've been alone my whole life, that video on the tablet would've proven that. There is nobody special to me that I must protect. There's only me." Robin looked at Samus's eyes as she told them this, realizing the coldness that was behind them. They were empty, with nothing in them besides one thing... "Survival is the most important thing to me, and I've followed it to this very day. Our civilization only got this far because of evolution, because of fighting for survival. That's what motivated me, I was aiming to outlive the rest of you, even if it meant bringing an end to one of your lives."

"And that's all we need to hear from you," Pit said, turning away from her. "Just end this already."

"As you request!" The headmaster squealed in delight. "It's punnnnnishment time! Let us begin the **execution**!" A slight rumbling was felt beneath them, and before long, the floor opened up underneath Samus, sending her plummeting to the depths. As they all watched in horror, the chandelier receded into the ceiling, and a single, large monitor emerged, playing the scene once again that none of them had hoped to ever watch once more.

 **-ESCAPE FROM ZEBES-**

Samus rubbed her body as it ached in pain from her plummet, glancing around and noticing she was trapped within a tunnel. Looking upwards, she saw several floating platforms, and at the very top, a single glimmering light shining down on her: the hole that she had originally fell from. Feeling the ground rumble, she pulled her body up, yelling out in pain as her legs ached horribly. She wasted no time jumping to the first platform, watching now as a bright red liquid came oozing from beneath her, slowing filling the bottom of the tunnel up as the heat pounded against her face. Realizing it was lava filling the base, her heart beat faster and she looked upwards to the next platform.

Climbing up platform from platform, she raced against the impending doom that was against her, eventually stopping at the next one as she cried out in pain. She glanced at her hand and saw that the edge of the platform was covered in barbed wire, but glancing down, saw the lava rising ever faster. She grit her teeth and pulled her body over the sharp wire, slicing open wounds all over her as she continued her ascent.

Eventually, she saw the exit above her nearing her ever closer, and she began to ignore the pain as she went faster and faster, panting heavily, her eyes glued on her freedom, her survival. As she climbed the last platform, her hand reached up to grab the edge of the hole, to bring her back to the others, but that illusion quickly faded as she realized it was not a hole, but instead a light shining down on her. Watching in horror, she stood still and closed her eyes as the lava finally reached her body, scorching and singeing ever inch of her before she vanished from the monitor entirely. Her fate was sealed.


End file.
